Demo Disc Vol. 23: Yester Yardsticks

While I had initially conceived of Demo Disc to be a way for me to cover anime that I normally wouldn't be able to properly review in full, one idea wound up being a decent alternate definition of this column: Pilots. Starting with Volume 9 in 2017, I've occasionally returned to the idea of using Demo Disc to cover initial pilot versions of various anime, namely Volume 13 in 2018, Volume 15 in 2019, & Volume 19 in 2021. While not exactly making anywhere near a majority (or even a plurality), with this fifth pilot-focused volume of Demo Disc that you're now reading, that now means that a little over 1/5 of Demo Disc has been dedicated to this subject and once things finish up with Volume 27 (whenever that happens...) it'll only be slightly less than that fraction. Now, sure, there are technically other pilots I could one day return to, but I think five sets of anime pilots, totaling 20 different pilots, is more than enough of these to have covered for Demo Disc.

Also, fittingly enough, while the majority of the pilots covered for Demo Disc originated from shonen manga, this time around they're mostly originated from shojo manga!

The Vengeful Sorceress

Running from 1993 to 1996 in Kodansha's Nakayoshi magazine for six volumes, Magic Knight Rayearth is often cited as one of the most iconic creations of the mangaka collective known as CLAMP, alongside the likes of X & Cardcaptor Sakura. Unsurprisingly, this would lead to not just one anime adaptation, but two. The first was a TV anime that ran for 49 episodes (split into two seasons) from 1994 to 1995, while in the second half of 1997 a three-episode OVA reimagining was made, both of which were animated by TMS & directed by Toshihiro "Toshiki" Hirano. TMS felt that the TV anime had tons of potential outside of Japan, so some time in the 90s (1995 seems to come up the most often) the studio teamed with The Ocean Group in Canada to produce an English dub test pilot for Magic Knight Rayearth, with apparently hopes of getting it aired on Fox Kids. This dub pilot wouldn't go anywhere, and a second attempt with Summit Media Group had an ambiguous result (there's word that 13 episodes were dubbed this time around, but no proof of the dub itself seems to exist anymore), but eventually Rayearth would finally receive a complete English dub via Media Blasters' release of the series, this time being dubbed by Bang Zoom! Entertainment; technically, there's a fourth dub for this version of Rayearth, but that was solely for Working Designs' release of the Sega Saturn video game. For the longest time it was thought that both of the old dubs for Magic Knight Rayearth TV were lost with time, but when Discotek Media license rescued the series for release on DVD & Blu-Ray in early 2017 it actually managed to find a copy of TMS & Ocean's original dub pilot & included it as an extra, so let's see how the earliest attempt to dub this iconic CLAMP series holds up, just in time for the anime's 20th Anniversary this year.

Ring ni Kakero, in Masami Kurumada & Others' Words: The Author's Notes & Afterwords (feat. shumpulations) Part 1: Volumes 1-9

As part of this overall celebration of Masami Kurumada for his 50th Anniversary I figured that I'd try to include as many of his biggest hits in some way or another, but that brought about a problem: I've long covered more or less everything I really can when it comes to Ring ni Kakero. As it's my favorite manga from Kurumada I kind of exhausted every real aspect of it that I can think of, whether it's reviewing the manga, reviewing the anime (twice, in full, at that!), reviewing the video game, reviewing the next-gen sequel, reviewing the Manga DVD, reviewing the image album (primarily composed by a pre-Nausicaä Joe Hisaishi!), creating a fun little "trivia track", covering what I felt were the "best bouts", covering my personal favorite superblows, doing a four-part recap of the early portion of the manga that the anime (mostly) skipped over, & even buying the original tankouban version of the manga so that I could see what exactly the "Deluxe Edition" re-release in 2001 & 2002 changed up. However, seeing as I still own those 25 tankouban (yes, it's technically "tankoubon/standalone book" in Japanese, but it's not as though "standalone edition" is exactly wrong, either), there is one last aspect of Ring ni Kakero that I can cover, & truly bring an end to my ability to cover this series that I absolute love: The Author's Notes & Afterwords.

I got nothing better to use for an intro image, so here's the
rarely seen English logo from Déclic Images' old DVD release of Season 1.

If you've read a manga before, especially those from Shonen Jump, then you know what these two things are, especially the first. At the start of each volume of a manga there's usually a short paragraph (at most) from the mangaka, either discussing some aspect of the content seen in that volume of the story or simply bringing up whatever random thought came to mind at that moment. Meanwhile, sometimes at the end of a volume there can be a message from the mangaka in regards to the series itself, though this is usually most often seen at the end of the final volume, where the mangaka can reminisce on the creation & serialization of the manga & what the advancement of that time meant to them. These would be the author's note & afterword, respectively, and while the original 25-volume tankouban release of Ring ni Kakero naturally has the former, it also has the latter... in each & every volume. You see, when Shueisha started releasing the RnK tankouban it decided to have a guest write a two-page afterword at the end of each volume, and while professional boxers initially handled the honors, since it's technically a boxing manga, as the series went into a more spectacle-focused execution & became a massive hit Shueisha decided to change focus & have other mangaka then working for Jump write the afterwords, & they focused more on Masami Kurumada himself & what he meant to them. Of these there is one that is actually a little well known now online, Akira Toriyama's afterword in Volume 23, but there are 24 other volumes of RnK & I was curious to see what these all said. However, while I can do a little minor translation for myself when in a pinch, the amount of work needed for these are well beyond my abilities.

Therefore, I wound up hiring shmupulations, the "repository of Japanese game developer translations", to translate each author's note & afterword found in all 25 volumes of Ring ni Kakero's original tankouban release, as they've never been included in any other release of the manga (bunkoban, wideban, or the RnK1 Deluxe Edition), & let's see for our own eyes what Masami Kurumada & others had to say about RnK (& Kurumada) as the manga itself was coming out back in the late 70s & early 80s. Since this is a lot of content this will be spread out across three parts throughout the year, & let's start with Volumes 1 to 9.

50 Years of Masami Kurumada's (Mostly) Hot-Blooded Manga: A Career Overview

[Please Note: This is a piece that will continually be updated as I gradually cover more titles on the blog & fill in gaps. If anything, this likely won't truly be considered "complete" until Masami Kurumada truly retires from making manga or passes away.]

"That manga drawer on that day, even now, continues to run down the unmarked road"

- Masami Kurumada 23th Anniversary Illustrated Collection: Burning Blood, Page 5

Born on December 6, 1953 in Tsukishima, Chuo, Tokyo to a family of tobishoku (a Japanese variant to a steeplejack, but not quite a 1:1 equivalent), Masami Kurumada has always been someone who's been attracted to fighting. As a child he was a bit of a delinquent, often getting into fights, and while he was naturally a fan of reading manga he always felt that such an occupation was beyond him, as he was under the impression that only those with notable accomplishments could enter that career, like Osamu Tezuka having an actual medical doctorate. However, that all changed when he first read Otoko Ippiki Gaki Daisho in the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump, a manga about a delinquent who becomes the leader of a gang of delinquents & heads to Tokyo to tackle societal issues, usually by beating people up, if need be. While Kurumada loved the manga itself, he was also enthralled by its creator, a young man named Hiroshi Motomiya... who himself was a relatively normal guy who had a history of delinquency & getting into fights as a child, just like Kurumada. Now with the assurance that you didn't need to be someone special to get into manga, Kurumada started practicing & honing his skills as an artist, and during his third year of high school submitted a one-shot to Shonen Jump, with hopes of winning the Young Jump Award for newcomers (now currently known as the Jump New World Manga Award). He didn't win the Award, nor was he even selected for an honorable mention, but instead of simply accepting defeat Kurumada did something a bit brazen: He went to publisher Shueisha's offices in Tokyo (since it was local), found the Shonen Jump Editorial Department, & straight up asked why he wasn't selected.

Masami Kurumada in the 70s vs. 2023,
via photos on his own website.

Seemingly impressed with the gumption he showed in doing this, Kurumada was offered the chance to work as an assistant to Ko Inoue, who at the time was drawing the baseball manga Samurai Giants for Weekly Shonen Jump, which was written by the legendary Ikki Kajiwara, author of instant classics like Star of the Giants & Ashita no Joe, two of Kurumada's favorites. There's also mention online of Kurumada working as an assistant for Hiroshi Motomiya & even Yoshihiro Takahashi at one point or another, but there's never been anything proving (or even disproving, to be fair) that either actually happened.  With newfound experience working under Inoue, Kurumada would eventually make his professional debut in mid-1974 in the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump with Sukeban Arashi, and 2024 marks the 50th Anniversary of Masami Kurumada's debut as a professional mangaka. If you've been reading this blog for the past 13+ years (or at least look at the Master List section) you'll see that I've covered Masami Kurumada's works a decent amount, and that's simply because he is my favorite mangaka of all time. Therefore, to celebrate Kurumada's Golden Anniversary in manga, I have decided to make all of 2024 dedicated to the man's works, primarily his manga. Every month this year will feature at least one piece about Masami Kurumada, and while the majority of those will be manga reviews (to fill in as many gaps in his catalog that I haven't previously reviewed) there will also be non-review pieces dedicated to Kurumada's career & works, and of course the year will include various pieces (reviews, B-Sides/Lists, etc.) that won't be about Kurumada at all.

Starting things off, then, will be this overview of Masami Kurumada's career & the various manga that he himself has drawn (i.e. spin-offs by other artists will be acknowledged, but not focused on), so that those who maybe have only heard of the name but aren't all that familiar with his catalog can at least get a general idea of what Kurumada brought to manga, why he's so important to the industry as a whole, & why I feel he's worth dedicating an entire year to for his Golden Anniversary. So let's get started, shall we? Trust me, there's A LOT to go over...