Obscusion B-Side: The "Origin of Heaven"... in Japan?! Tengen & Time Warner Interactive's Japan-Exclusive Games

After Atari, Inc. lost owner Warner Communications $500 million by the end of the Summer of 1983, it was decided that Warner would sell off the home & computer division of Atari, which wound up in the hands of Jack Tramiel, leading to the creation of Atari Corporation. However, the arcade division of Atari was still profitable & wound up staying with Warner, with it getting renamed Atari Games. As per the agreement between Warner & Tramiel, Atari Games would be allowed to continue using the "Atari" name, but only as long as the word "Games" always came after it (this would not prevent many people from thinking that it was all still one singular "Atari", even to this very day), and it could only use the "Atari" name in arcades, not in the consumer market, i.e. home consoles & computers. However, once Nintendo revitalized the home console market with the NES it didn't take long for Atari Games to want to have a piece of that pie. They would license out their titles to Atari Corp. so that ports would see release on the 2600, 7800, & later Lynx, but when it came to non-Atari hardware Atari Games decided to do it themselves, resulting in the creation of Tengen.

Named after the "Origin of Heaven", i.e. the center point on a go board (similar to how the "Atari" name was also a go reference), Tengen was founded in 1987 & initially started off as your standard third-party Nintendo licensee, releasing Gauntlet, R.B.I. Baseball (a localization of the first Famista game), & Pac-Man for the NES as official releases in mid-to-late 1988. The latter two games were the result of Atari Games' close relationship with Namco, which had been majority owner of Atari Games from 1985 to 1987. At the time Namco had infamously decided to not agree to be a licensee for Nintendo of America, due to the terms, instead preferring to license its Famicom games out to other companies for international release, like Bandai, Sunsoft, & Tengen; Namco wouldn't publish its first NES game until 1993. Similarly, Tengen was also no fan of Nintendo's licensee terms & never planned on staying official, so after those initial three games it went rogue & became an unlicensed third-party, illegally acquiring a copy of Nintendo's lock-out program, so as to bypass it, by telling the US Copyright Office that they needed it for potential litigation against Nintendo. The initial unofficial releases would start a legal battle between Nintendo & Tengen that would hound the latter for pretty much its entire life (under that name, at least), during which Tengen would eventually find fairer pastures over with Sega of America & its Genesis, Game Gear, & (in Europe) Master System, among some other short-lived deals on other hardware, like TurboGrafx-16, PCs, & even the SNES (via officially licensed third-parties, like Mindscape & THQ, for that last one).

However, Tengen (& Atari Games) wasn't solely operating in North America & Europe. Established in 1988, Tengen, Ltd. was Tengen (Inc.)'s Japanese subsidiary that not only released Japanese versions of Tengen's titles, plus both James Bond 007: The Duel & MIG-29 Fighter Pilot for Domark, but also did some development of its own; from here on out I'll just refer to it as "Tengen Japan". More often than not this was in regards to port jobs, but occasionally Tengen Japan developed original games, though the only one of those that ever saw release outside of Japan would be 1991's Magical Puzzle Popils for the Game Gear. And, in that case, we reach the subject of this overview: Japan-exclusive releases! Shockingly enough, there were only seven games (via eight releases) put out by Tengen, & its later incarnation of Time Warner Interactive, that only ever saw release in Japan (at least back in the day, for two of them), and they actually wind up coinciding with the final years of Atari Games' console division, in general. So let's go over Tengen & Time Warner Interactive's Japan-exclusive games, all while seeing how an infamous third-party console developer/publisher eventually got put out to pasture.

Twelve Iconic & Influential Mangaka to Have Yet to See Official English Release Part 2

A very strict requirement when it came to compiling this list is that the mangaka must not have been published officially in English at all... in any way. Therefore any official English release of a manga featuring a mangaka's name disqualified them from contention, even if said manga was by no means what one would call "representative" of their notoriety. For example, I was all ready to include the late Shinji Wada (creator of Sukeban Deka) in this list, only for me to realize that Wada had actually been officially published in English in the past, namely by way of Crown, a mid-00s manga that Wada only wrote (with You Higiri doing the artwork) that Go! Comi managed to release only two volumes of before going out of business in 2010; still, it's an official English manga release for Shinji Wada, so I had to remove him. I also would have absolutely loved to include Kazuhiko Shimamoto (creator of Blazing Transfer Student, Moeyo & Hoero Pen, & Aoi Honou/Blue Blazes), but I own TokyoPop's release of Shimamoto's sequel/reboot to Shotaro Ishinomori's The Skull Man from the early 00s, and while that manga is generally considered to not be one of Shimamoto's stronger works it remains the only time he was ever officially published in English and, therefore, DQs him from the list.

However, there is one absolute icon of manga, right up there with the likes of Osamu Tezuka, Shotaro Ishinomori, & Shigeru Mizuki in how influential he was on manga, who has yet to be officially published in English, so let's start the second half of this list with him!

Born on June 18, 1934, Mitsuteru Yokoyama was inspired to become a mangaka after reading Tezuka's Metropolis back in the 40s, & after graduating high school worked at both the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation & later a movie company in his hometown of Kobe while making manga on the side. Yokoyama would then hit it big in 1956 with Tetsujin 28, which would become one of the most popular of its era (rivaling the popularity of Tezuka's Tetsuwan Atom/Astro Boy) & the anime adaptation by TCJ (now Eiken) in 1963 would then get released around the world, where it took the name Gigantor. Tetsujin 28 is also generally considered the modern origin of the mecha genre, especially for anime, & the idea of creating (or at least solidifying) entire genres would become a common thread for Yokoyama. Aside from mecha Yokoyama is also associated with helping define magical girls with Sally the Witch, establish some of the earliest framework of battle manga with Babel II, help solidify ninja manga with both Iga no Kagemaru & Kamen no Ninja Akakage, create one of the earliest manga & TV "media mix" franchises with Giant Robo, & pushed forward the idea of manga as a form of literary adaptation with conversions of classics like Water Margin & Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the latter of which would be Yokoyama's longest single work at 60 volumes. Sadly, on April 15, 2004 a fire broke out in Yokoyama's home, with Yokoyama suffering severe burns & falling into a coma, and he'd pass away later that same day from his injuries at the age of 69; Yasuhiro Imagawa's TV anime reboot of Tetsujin 28 had debuted only a little over a week prior.

Twelve Iconic & Influential Mangaka to Have Yet to See Official English Release Part 1

In 1987 North America would see the very first officially translated English releases of manga, which were made up of First Comics' release of Lone Wolf & Cub by Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima, as well as Viz & Eclipse Comics' releases of Mai, the Psychic Girl by Kazuya Kudo & Ryoichi Ikegami, Area 88 by Kaoru Shintani, & Kamui Gaiden by Sanpei Shirato (under the name Legend of Kamui, not to be confused with Drawn & Quarterly's current release of Kamui-den under the same title). In the 38 years since those releases the English manga industry has reached highs that I don't think anybody who was a part of those earliest days could have ever imagined. Since then various iconic & influential mangaka have had manga of theirs see official English release, in some form or another. People like Osamu Tezuka, Shotaro Ishinomori, Shigeru Mizuki, Leiji Matsumoto, Moto Hagio, Kazuo Umezz, Keiko Takemiya, Monkey Punch, Akira Toriyama, Masami Kurumada, Go Nagai, Hirohiko Araki, Mitsuru Adachi, Naoki Urasawa, Junji Ito, Takehiko Inoue, Tetsuo Hara, Rumiko Takahashi, Takao Saito, Hayao Miyazaki, Kentaro Miura, Keiji Nakazawa, & Kaiji Kawaguchi (among many others) have all had at least one of their works see release in English over these decades, though some haven't had a release in a long time. Others have only more recently seen English release for the first time, like Tetsuya Chiba, George Morikawa, Hiroshi Motomiya, Akira Miyashita, Tatsuya Egawa, Yasumi Yoshizawa, Riyoko Ikeda, Hisashi Eguchi, Eiichi Fukui, Yoichi Takahashi, Nobuyuki Fukumoto, & Kazuo Inoue, even if for some of these mangaka it's only digitally, either via eBook or some sort of subscription service.

However, there are still plenty of legendary mangaka who have yet to see ANY English release, even after nearly 40 years of officially licensed manga in English. Therefore let's go over twelve that, in my opinion, should be given that chance one day, and I'll bring up some titles from each mangaka that would make the most sense to bring over in English.

We'll start off with a creator whose most iconic work has recently gotten its first official English release, in this case via its anime adaptation being streamed; however, that's anime so it doesn't count for this list. Born on December 11, 1952, Osamu Akimoto actually first got his start in the anime industry, despite his dream being to make manga after his mother gifted him Shotaro Ishinomori's Guide to Becoming a Mangaka in the mid-60s. However, after graduating high school he instead went into animation, first failing Muchi Pro's entrance exam before finding a job at Tatsunoko, where he worked for two years as an animator (most notably on Gatchaman) before quitting due to him needing to care for his ill mother. In 1976 he submitted a comedic one-shot manga about officers who work at a police box in his hometown of Kameari, Katsushika titled Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kouen Mae Hashutsujo/This is the Police Box in Front of Kameari Park in Katsushika Ward... and the rest is history. The one-shot would become a finalist for the Young Jump Award in 1976, before getting serialized in the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump later that same year, where it would run for 40 years across 1,955 chapters (with Akimoto legendarily never missing a single deadline) & total 200 volumes before ending in 2016; it has received various one-shots since then, with a 201st volume coming out in 2021. Shortened to simply Kochikame, the series one of the most iconic manga in all of Japan, and from 1996 to 2004 a TV anime adaptation by Studio Pierrot ran in on TV for 344 episodes, as well as 27 TV specials (the last of which was in 2016, to celebrate the end of the manga's serialization), and recently Remow has started offering the Kochikame anime via its YouTube channel with English subs (US & Canada only), one "new" episode per week.

Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Part 2): "I, Cao Cao, and You, Liu Bei, Are the Only Two Worthy Heroes in the World"

Previously in the Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Romance of the Three Kingdoms review:

"So far, the first 22 episodes of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Romance of the Three Kingdoms are an extremely solid way to experience the early days of the eventual fall of the Han dynasty, as while this is no doubt Liu Bei's story from an overall perspective it still has no problem moving away from him when necessary in order to tell another side of the story that's essential... and I am curious about seeing how this anime continues on from here, post-Lü Bu."

As I mentioned in Part 1, the production of the TV anime adaptation of Yokoyama Sangokushi was a bit of an odd one due to the companies involved. Animation was done by AZ, a no-name studio that you seriously can't find any info on, had previously only worked on most of the Raven Tengu Kabuto TV anime, and seemingly would disappear after this show, never to be seen again. Meanwhile, though Kenji Yoshida's short-lived Yu Entertainment was co-producing this show, which is likely how it managed to get such a talented staff working on it, the primary production company behind it was Dai Nippon Printing, and while DNP has had involvement with anime production beyond Yokoyama Sangokushi, those all seem to be much smaller investments than this was. However, this means that DNP is the primary company that would handle something like licensing... but DNP isn't really equipped to handle things like licensing an anime out, especially internationally. Therefore, another company was brought on to assist with that stuff, so much so that they're even included in the credits of the show itself under "Production Cooperation", as seen in the two ED sequences: Enoki Films.

Yep, if you go to Enoki Films' website you can find Yokoyama Sangokushi there under the title "Quest of Three Kingdoms"; coincidentally enough, Enoki also handles licensing for Shinano Kikaku's Sangokushi film trilogy. Oddly, though, d-rights (now ADK Emotions) also seemingly handled international licensing for Yokoyama Sangokushi in 2016 & 2017, so who knows what the licensing situation is like for this show!

Anyway, aside from the fact that Lü Bu's involvement in the story ended with Episode 22, it was also a good idea for me to stop there for Part 1 of my review of Yokoyama Sangokushi for another reason: Episodes 23 & 24 actually originally aired in Japan as a one-hour special on April 10, 1992. Now, to be fair, this might actually be due more to the fact that the day that originally would have aired Episode 23, April 3, was actually skipped over back during the show's original airing, maybe(?) due to Prince (pre-TAFKAP) performing a concert in the Tokyo Dome that day, which marked the start of his Diamonds and Pearls Tour; it's entirely possible that TV Tokyo aired a live-telecast of that performance, or something. Regardless, these remaining 25 episodes mark a notable shift in the story of Romance, as now that the likes of Dong Zhuo & Lü Bu are gone it results in the rise of the likes of Cao Cao, Liu Bei, & even the Sun Family, eventually led by Sun Jian's second son Sun Quan after the death of his older brother Sun Ce a little over a year after Lü Bu's death. While the Yokoyama Sangokushi anime never truly makes it to the formal foundation of the titular Three Kingdoms (the anime only covers up to 209 AD/CE, while the kingdoms themselves would be officially established between 220 & 222), it really feels as though this second half will act as the "true" set up to that iconic era. Therefore, time to finish up this anime & see if it can follow through on what was established beforehand.

Lü Bu has been defeated & killed following the Battle of Xiapi by the combined forces of Liu Bei & Cao Cao. Seeing the continued value in the existence of the Han dynasty, Cao Cao works as its Prime Minister & lead general in an effort to reunite all of China as it once was, but it's easy to see that there are greater ambitions behind his actions. Meanwhile, the three blood oath brothers of Liu Bei, Guan Yu, & Zhang Fei know too well how dangerous Cao Cao can be & start to look for a way to work against him. However, they need a brilliant strategist to help them in this battle, and eventually find one in the form of the "Sleeping Dragon" Zhuge Liang, who has a grand plan of splitting China between three competing sides. As Cao Cao slowly increases the size of his army to a degree where he looks unstoppable Liu Bei & his allies realize that they need to deal a strong blow to Cao Cao in order to keep his ambitions at bay, and likely need the assistance of the forces of Sun Quan, who rules over the Jiangdong & Wu regions in the South & East, in order to do so.

Obscusion B-List: Wait... Capcom (Japan) Published WHAT!?!

Back in 2022 I did B-List about a variety of video games published by Capcom that, in hindsight, really look a bit bizarre & not befitting the overall history of the publisher. Specifically, that list was focused on Capcom USA, which at various points published things like Star Wars games for the Game Boy, a Wizardry game for the SNES, distributing the original arcade version of Battle Arena Toshinden 2, madcap FMV game Fox Hunt (mainly due to the then-new Capcom USA president being an ex-Digital Pictures guy), a pair of snowboarding games for the PS1, & the insanely impressive Game Boy Color version of Dragon's Lair. Meanwhile, when you look at Capcom's catalog of games over in Japan you do find a hell of a lot of "odd" titles, but a lot of those are simply publishing deals with Western studios. For example, throughout the 00s Capcom was known to publish Western-developed games in Japan for the likes of Rockstar/Take 2 (Grand Theft Auto III to IV, Red Dead Revolver), Sierra (Empire Earth), The 3DO Company (Army Men RTS), Gotham Games (Conflict: Desert Storm I & II), Activision (various extreme sports games, True Crime: Streets of LA), Midway (Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy), & even Sony (God of War I to III, The Mark of Kri, The Getaway). Yes, Sony handed Japanese publishing for its own Western-developed PS2 (& early PS3) games to Capcom.

I would imagine the easy thing to do online would be to go "ZOMG! Capcom published GTA & God of War!?!?!?!?!"... but that'd be lazy, boring, & very clickbait-y. So, instead, I dug a bit deeper & found a selection of games that Capcom Japan published that really are a bit off kilter, even for that division, though some of them actually wound up having some importance, in the long run.

When Capcom got its start it was mainly an arcade game company, and ports of its games to consoles & even computers in both Japan & abroad were initially developed & published by third-parties, like Micronics, Data East, Activision, ASCII, & Elite Systems. Eventually it started doing console ports in-house in Japan, started self-publishing on consoles, & its international divisions would start publishing for computers in regions like Europe & North America. However, Capcom Japan was still notably against publishing for PC, instead relying mostly on ASCII until the late 80s, when the partnership ended & Capcom Japan left PC publishing entirely for a few years. Things would finally change in 1992 when Capcom Japan started self-publishing for hardware like the Sharp X68000 & later FM Towns, while working with SystemSoft to publish on the NEC PC-98, which finally brings us to the first entry for this B-List: The PC-98 version of Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon.

Anime Grindhouse: The Slam Dunk Movies

Born on January 12, 1967 in Isa, Kagoshima, Takehiko Nariai loved to draw as a child & while growing up found inspiration in wanting to make manga by reading titles like the late Shinji Mizushima's Dokaben, Tetsu Kariya & Ryoichi Ikegami's Otoko-gumi, Makoto Kobayashi's 1・2 no Sanshiro, & Masami Kurumada's Ring ni Kakero. He originally wanted to go to an art school but as they were too expensive he instead went to Kumamoto University & majored in literature. However, a manga one-shot he had submitted to Weekly Shonen Jump (but didn't win any accolades) caught the eye of editor Taizo Nakamura, resulting in Nariai dropping out of university, moving to Tokyo, & entering the manga business, starting off as an assistant to Tsukasa Hojo during City Hunter's serialization, where he likely worked alongside Haruto Umezawa, future creator of Hareluya II BØY, at least for a little bit. After winning the 35th Tezuka Award for his one-shot Kaede Purple in 1988 (alongside Yuko Asami's Jump Run), Nariai would make his serialized debut in mid-1989 with Chameleon Jail, a manga written by Kazuhiko Watanabe about the titular "Risk Hunter" who takes jobs too dangerous for normal law enforcement & can change his appearance using an energy called "kara"; Chameleon Jail would only last 12 chapters, across two volumes, before getting cancelled.

However, included in both volumes of Chameleon Jail were Kaede Purple & a later one-shot by Nariai called Jordan Miteeni/Just Like Jordan, both of which were basketball stories inspired by the likes of Michael Jordan, who had already become a living legend by this point... and alongside a later one-shot called Aka ga Suki/I Love Red that was published in the 1990 Shonen Jump Summer Special they marked the first hints at Nariai's true calling in manga.

You see, back in his school days Nariai was a part of the basketball team, and while they weren't really any good Nariai had fond memories of when he & his friends would just play basketball. Therefore, he decided that his second manga serialization for Jump would be all about basketball (despite some protestations from his editor, due to basketball manga never doing well), and in Issue #42 of 1990 Nariai (now using the pen name Takehiko Inoue) debuted Slam Dunk. This told the story of delinquent Hanamichi Sakuragi, whose desperation for finding a girlfriend makes him join Shohoku High's basketball team to please a girl he falls instantly head over heels over named Haruko Akagi (the sister of the captain of Shohoku's team), despite his utter lack of any experience, only to discover a true love for the game. It initially had a bit of a variable start, but about half-a-year into its serialization, which marked the start of the first real game that was played, Slam Dunk rebounded strong & would go on to be one of Shonen Jump's biggest, most iconic hits of the 90s, being second only to Dragon Ball in popularity & has been recognized with single-handedly popularizing basketball in Japan. When Slam Dunk ended in Issue #27 of 1996 after 276 chapters (across 31 volumes) it became both the third manga in Jump history to be given a "Full Color Final Chapter", following Ring ni Kakero in 1981 & Dragon Ball in 1995, & the second manga in Jump history to have the magazine cover for its final chapter, following Yamazaki Ginjiro in 1981. The manga's end alone would also result in a loss of ~2 million readers, which when combined with Dragon Ball's the year prior losing ~500,000 readers resulted in the end of the "Golden Age of Jump" that Fist of the North Star began back in 1983. Without a doubt, Slam Dunk is one of the most iconic titles in all of manga (& Inoue himself is one of the most beloved artists in all of manga), and even to this day it continues to be a best-seller whenever a new release happens... though that's due, in part, to Inoue infamously being against offering digital versions of his manga, only recently changing his mind when it came to his wheelchair basketball manga, 1999's Real.

So if Slam Dunk is such an iconic series, both in its original manga form & in its equally celebrated TV anime adaptation by Toei that ran from 1993 to 1996 for 101 episodes, then why am I covering it here? Simply put... movies! In 1994 & 1995, as part of the (mostly) biannual Toei Anime Fair, four Slam Dunk anime short films were produced, but today almost no one ever talks about them & they've never seen any official English release; they were all remastered in HD for a Blu-Ray release in Japan in 2015, though. Therefore, since I recently just read through the entire manga for the first time ever, I want to check out these four movies & see if they deserve being as generally forgotten as they've become today. Also, for hell of it, I'll toss in late 2022's The First Slam Dunk as well, to round out the starting roster with five players, as per regulation. It's time to open up the Anime Grindhouse!!

Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Part 1): Do Not Pursue Lü Bu!

Born some time in 161 AD/CE in Zhuo County (now Zhuozhou, Baoding, Hebei), China, Liu Bei (courtesy name Xuande) allegedly was a descendant of Liu Sheng, ninth son of Emperor Jing and the first King of Zhongshan during the Han dynasty. However, other historians have traced Liu Bei's heritage to that of the "Marquis of Linyi", which could either be Liu Fu or Liu Rang, who were two of Liu Sheng's brothers. Regardless, this meant that Liu Bei was of royal heritage, but while his grandfather Liu Xiong eventually became prefect of Fan in Dong commandery his father Liu Hong sadly passed away young, resulting in Liu Bei growing up poor due to Han decree regarding inheritance (& Liu Bei's own distant heritage) leaving he & his mother with barely any money; for all intents & purposes, Liu Bei was a commoner. When the Yellow Turban Rebellion started up in 184, & the Han asked the commonfolk for assistance, Liu Bei rallied his own troop to help out, which included Zhang Fei & Guan Yu, two men he (according to apocrypha) made a blood oath with in a peach garden after meeting & befriending them. After the Rebellion was fought back against & China entered an era of splintered turmoil Liu Bei would slowly become known for his benevolence & humanity, especially when compared to the more practical & sometimes cutthroat Cao Cao, eventually managing to establish the kingdom of Shu Han in 221, though Liu Bei himself would pass away on June 10, 223.

When it comes to Romance of the Three Kingdoms Liu Bei (&, in turn, Shu) is often treated as the de facto "hero" of the story, due to him rising up from poverty & suffering many defeats early on, only to continue fighting & eventually become the ruler of one of the titular Three Kingdoms; there's also an element of the "divine right of kings" due to his royal heritage. Therefore, it only makes sense that the very first TV anime adaptation of Romance, though technically detailing all three sides to some extent, would focus primarily on Liu Bei's side of the story.

Come the end of 1970 mangaka Mitsuteru Yokoyama was arguably already a legend of the industry, having previously made iconic & trendsetting manga like Tetsujin 28 (1956-1966), Sally the Witch (1966-1967), Iga no Kagemaru (1961-1966), Kamen no Ninja Akakage (1966-1967), & Giant Robo (1967-1972). Yokoyama would continue that trend in 1971 with the debut of Babel II, while also bringing to an end an eight-volume manga adaptation of Suikoden/Water Margin, one of the Classic Chinese Novels, as Yokoyama was also a fan of making manga based on history. Suikoden was serialized in the magazine Kibou no Tomo (previously Kibou Life), which throughout its history has been known to publish manga based on history & folklore, including Osamu Tezuka's iconic Buddha & part of Yukinobu Hoshino's Professor Munakata Series. Kibou no Tomo's publisher Ushio Shuppan is also affiliated with the infamous Soka Gakkai, but its various manga have no direct connection to that organization; Soka Gakkai has another publisher specifically for stuff relating to its own executives. Anyway, after finishing up his adaptation of Suikoden, Yokoyama would begin a new historical manga for Kibou no Tomo, though this next one would be much more grand in scale: A manga adaptation of Sangokushi/Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

It is worth noting that, by this point, most of the Japanese populace had become familiar with Sangokushi by way of a re-telling done by novelist Eiji Yoshikawa that was originally serialized in newspapers from 1939 to 1943, i.e. during World War II. Comprised of only 10 volumes in total, Yoshikawa's Sangokushi was a bit of an altered adaptation in some ways, namely when it came to further romanticizing the "main" characters, and notably stopped at Zhuge Liang's death during the Battle of Wuzhang Plains in 234, 46 years before the actual end of the era in 280, when Jin conquered Wu & unified China. I bring this up because, though technically based on Yoshikawa's version of the story, Yokoyama's manga didn't stop at Wuzhang Plains, but instead actually went all the way to the very end of Luo Guangzhong's 14th century novel. Because of this, Yokoyama's Sangokushi would run from 1974 to 1987, during which Kibou no Tomo would get renamed to both Shonen World (in 1978) & later Comic Tom (in 1980), and eventually totaled 60 volumes, making it Yokoyama's longest single work in his entire catalog, with some considering it his magnum opus; as of May 2020 it has sold over 80 million copies, roughly tying titles like Tokyo Revengers & Fullmetal Alchemist. Much like how Yoshikawa's version helped popularize the story of the Three Kingdoms in Japan for many generations, Yokoyama's manga is seemingly considered just as influential when it comes to how the country interprets that era of Chinese history.

In the mid-80s NTV & Shin-Ei Animation would produce a pair of Sangokushi anime TV specials that ostensibly claimed to be based on Yokoyama's manga, so much so that Hikari Production co-owns the copyright to them with Shin-Ei, but in reality aren't; I covered those (in comparison to Shinano Kikaku's theatrical film trilogy) back in February. However, an actual anime adaptation would debut on TV Tokyo on October 18, 1991, though the companies behind it were nothing that one would normally expect for anime. Namely, the animation studio behind it was AZ (pronounced A-Z[et]), which had previously only worked on the majority of the Raven Tengu Kabuto TV anime for NTV in 1990, and following this anime would never be seen again. Also, the main producer for this TV anime was... Dai Nippon Printing, a general printing company that had literally never done anything like this, both before & after, at least when it comes to being the company that fronts the main share of the money for an anime & thereby co-owns the copyright, with Hikari Production. Now, to be fair, DNP co-produced this anime with Yu Entertainment, a short-lived company founded by Kenji Yoshida, one of the "Yoshida Brothers" who co-founded Tatsunoko & had previously been that studio's second president, following Tatsuo Yoshida's passing. Still, DNP's direct involvement shows just how big of a deal this anime, simply titled Yokoyama Mitsuteru Sangokushi/Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Romance of the Three Kingdoms, was at the time by being the first TV anime adaptation of Romance, and it would run for 47 episodes before ending on September 25, 1992, stopping with the conclusion of the Battle of Chibi, which was roughly the halfway point of the manga. Since it's so long I'll be splitting this review up into two parts, so let's see how the first 22 episodes of Yokoyama Sangokushi (as I'll be calling it from here on out, for simplicity's sake) fare.

The Land of Obscusion's Hot-Blooded Ranking of Masami Kurumada's Manga! #7 to #1 (Kurumada's Long-Runners)

When it comes to legendary mangaka, most tend to have just one iconic work that everyone instantly thinks of, even if that individual actually has multiple long-running manga in their catalog. Masami Kurumada is a perfect example of that, as pretty much all anyone ever thinks of is Saint Seiya, his 28-volume Shonen Jump series that ran from 1986 to 1990. However, the truth of the matter is that by the time Seiya's first chapter debuted in early 1986 (technically late 1985, but let's not get pedantic here) he had already been a notable & influential success in Japan for about a decade, and even after Seiya came to an end would go on to continue to be a notable success during the 90s. This, in turn, would essentially allow him to be given carte blanche from then on out, starting in 2000, where he could pretty much make whatever manga he wanted, & at whatever pace he wanted to make it at, without fear of it being cancelled due to a lack of popularity. In fact, in the 2010s he even revived a manga that had previously been cancelled literal decades prior in the 80s, due to a lack of popularity, & finally saw it to completion, which is something that is rarely seen in manga, even by some of its most iconic & popular creators.

Therefore, I do feel that it is a bit of a disservice to only think of Masami Kurumada as "The Saint Seiya Guy", as it would also be to consider Akira Toriyama "The Dragon Ball Guy", Rumiko Takahashi "The InuYasha Girl", Tetsuo Hara "The Fist of the North Star Guy", Go Nagai "The Devilman Guy", Gosho Aoyama "The Detective Conan Guy", or Shotaro Ishinomori "The Cyborg 009 Guy". Sure, there are shared themes, concepts, & (especially) character designs across Kurumada's various works, but there are plenty of differences between his titles, and especially in the long-runners. However, to really notice those elements that do make each title unique is to really read each of them & look for those differences... and since only two of Kurumada's long-runners have ever received official English releases (& also, to this day, remain the only ones with complete English translations, official or otherwise) it's something that most people don't really have the ability to take note of. That's been the major reason why I wanted to review all of Kurumada's works here on the blog, as aside from giving my own personal opinion on each of them (& satiate my own curiosity, as well) I also just wanted there to be some sort of detailed English write-up on each of them, so that there might be something out there to explain the differences between each work & showcase the career of Kurumada himself; that's also why I held off on reviewing Saint Seiya for so long.

In total, there are seven long-running manga from Masami Kurumada, with the "shortest" of them all being 10 volumes long. Having now given proper reviews to all of them at some point between 2013 & 2025, there's only one question remaining: How would I personally rank them? Let's find out!

The Land of Obscusion's Hot-Blooded Ranking of Masami Kurumada's Manga! #14 to #8 (Kurumada's Short-Run Works)

I normally don't really bother to do rankings here on The Land of Obscusion, and that's mainly because there's always that feeling of definitiveness to them, that the order one gives to rankings should feel more or less final. However, I will make an exception this time around for a simple reason: I have now covered all of Masami Kurumada's "major" works in his catalog of manga. Ever since debuting in 1974 Kurumada has made a wide variety of manga, and here on this blog I most recently reviewed Saint Seiya: Next Dimension, which was the last remaining long-running manga left for me to write about. Of course, this doesn't mean that I have covered literally every single manga Kurumada himself has ever made, but at this point all that remains are seven, made up of a trio of one-shots (Mikeneko Rock, Sei'ya ni Kane wa Naru, & a teaser for the Saint Seiya Tenkai-hen movie), a trio of short-run Saint Seiya midquels (Episode Zero, Origin, & Destiny), & the Fuma no Kojirou midquel (Asuka Mumyou-cho) that he's still currently in the middle of making (but I doubt will go for more than a volume), plus whatever future manga he'll eventually make.

Therefore... how would I rank all of the "major" Kurumada manga?

It's like some bizarre, (mostly) bishonen,
likely violent Brady Bunch!

So, to begin with, a few of ground rules to establish. First, one-shots are not included in this ranking, which therefore DQs Mabudachi Jingi, Shiro Obi Taisho, & the Jitsuroku! Shinwakai quartet from contention; everything being ranked is a multi-chapter run. Second, only manga drawn by Masami Kurumada himself count, so no spin-offs (especially since I've only fully read two of them). Finally, the reason why I feel fine doing a ranking now, despite still missing seven Kurumada manga, is because the remainder are either one-shots (so they'd be DQ-ed regardless) or they are supplemental works (namely to Saint Seiya & Fuma no Kojirou) that arguably wouldn't be able to stand on their own. Sure, this ranking includes two sequel manga, but both of those are long-runners, so they have more than enough content to them that they can both stand on their own as individual works. With that in mind this results in 14 different Kurumada manga eligible for ranking (in chronological order): Sukeban Arashi, Ring ni Kakero, Fuma no Kojirou, Raimei no Zaji, Otoko Zaka, Saint Seiya, Aoi Tori no Shinwa - Blue Myth Overture, Silent Knight Sho, Akane-Iro no Kaze -Shinsengumi Keppu-ki-, B't X, Evil Crusher Maya, Ring ni Kakero 2, Saint Seiya: Next Dimension, & Ai no Jidai -Ichigo Ichie-. While this allows me to split this ranking up evenly across two parts (#14 to #8 & #7 to #1), it also coincidentally enough results in the lower half being all of Kurumada's short-run works, while the upper half is all of Kurumada's long-running works, so it also effectively acts as separate rankings of both his short-run & long-running manga.

So, without further ado, here is how I personally would rank Kurumada's "major" manga, starting with his short-run work:

Obscusion B-Side: Heart Breaker: Dangan Yori Ai wo Komete: It's Not Hammer, It's Not Michael... It's Diamond✡Yukai!

With this blog being focused primarily around anime & manga, there's no surprise that I've covered a variety of anime that were released straight to the home video/rental market, i.e. the Original Video Animation, or OVA... but what about the live-action side of things? Interestingly enough, while the OVA got its start back in 1983 with Dallos, & the concept of "direct-to-video" seemingly started in North America with 1984's E. Nick: A Legend in His Own Mind by CineTel Films (so, yes, technically anime was the first to do it!), it wouldn't be until 1989 that Japan started to give (live-action) direct-to-video a go. In the late 80s the Japanese film industry was hitting a bit of a slump, only releasing around 250 films per year on average, while rental stores were becoming really popular... which included ones that were operating illegally & renting out pirated copies of films. Wanting to "make a legitimate business" out of this market, Toei Video decided to launch what it called "V-Cinema", a line meant solely for direct-to-video movies aimed specifically at the rental market, which by then was starting to see a decline in popularity but Toei felt could still support a niche market reliably. The first Toei V-Cinema film would be Crime Hunter: Ikari no Jyudan/Bullets of Rage on March 10, 1989 & was a notable success, prompting Toei Video to produce more & more titles. This resulted in V-Cinema becoming an iconic & influential part of Japan's film industry throughout the 90s, giving many actors, directors, & the like their first big breaks in the industry, including Riki Takeuchi, Show Aikawa, Takashi Miike, & Kiyoshi Kurosawa (whose infamous Sweet Home I reviewed back in 2018); it's even the origin of some iconic franchises, like Ju-On. Though it's slowed down heavily since the mid-00s, V-Cinema is still produced by Toei to this very day, while the term itself has since become associated with the direct-to-video market in general over in Japan, despite still being trademarked by Toei, similar to terms like digicam, scotch tape, aspirin, jello, etc.

Taken from the PV, as it's much more interesting
than either of the actual title slates in the movie.

Come 1992, V-Cinema's success had created a direct-to-video boom that led to other studios producing their own similar movies, with Toei Video producer Kazuo Kato later stating that the market had become so inundated with content that it got hard to tell what was what & (outside of V-Cinema still being a Toei-trademarked label) where it came from. This wasn't helped in any way by the fact that, by & large, most of these direct-to-video films were either action-heavy, yakuza flicks, or relied on lots of nudity & erotica. Therefore, some efforts were made to offer something different for the V-Cinema label, and one of those was a film titled Heart Breaker: Dangan Yori Ai wo Komete/From Love with a Bullet; there seem to be conflicting reports on whether it came out in 1992 or 1993. Instead of what had already become a "standard" V-Cinema this one went in a completely different direction by being a bit of a mystery film featuring, and I quote, "an all-musician cast & MTV-influenced hard action"; yes, this was a "dance action movie". Not just that, but the entire musical score for the film was composed by a young artist named Akio Togashi, who would shortly re-debut under a new moniker, m.c.A·T ("Microphone Controller Akio Togashi"). In fact, the first song Togashi would release under this new moniker would be a little song he first made for Heart Breaker, "Bomb A Head!". Now, if you're of a certain generation of anime fan (like me) you might be familiar with "Bomb A Head!" via m.c.A·T's 2004 self-cover, "Bomb A Head! V", which wound up being the OP theme to the TV anime adaptation of Tenjho Tenge & is, quite frankly, one of the coolest anime OP themes ever.

Yes, this is a rather silly reason to want to watch & write about a film... but Heart Breaker is actually considered a cult classic in Japan. In 1995 Kinema Junpo (Japan's oldest film magazine) ranked it #5 in the All Time Best Ten Japanese Movies' "Original Video" category, & in 2014 Toei Video itself considered it one of the 25 best titles in all of V-Cinema for the label's 25th Anniversary (alongside the likes of Ju-On 1 & 2, Crime Hunter, & Lady Battle Cop [i.e. "Female RoboCop"]), with Toei Video seemingly keeping it in print on DVD to this very day because of that. I was able to buy a brand new copy off of Amazon Japan just last year for around $15, and the YouTube channel FulciZombie's Film Grave uploaded it with English subs (via the captions) just last year; amazing that Toei Video didn't already copyright claim that yet. Therefore, what started off as an amusing little bit of amusement has turned into legit curiosity, so time to see if Heart Breaker truly is as good & memorable as it apparently is.

Saint Seiya: Next Dimension (+ Saint Seiya Then): Is it Asclepius, Caduceus... or Ouroboros?

This was a review I really wasn't sure if I'd ever actually get to, for two reasons. First, I had wanted to review all of Masami Kurumada's prior works, or at least his non-one-shot stuff, since this was his most recent long-running manga. Second... I really had no idea when (or even if) this thing would actually come to an end, as the idea that Kurumada himself would pass away before finishing it would sometimes be in the thoughts of peoples' heads! Thankfully, 2024 being Masami Kurumada's 50th Anniversary resulted in both of those reasons being made null & void, as I had made at least one piece every month that entire year covering Kurumada in some fashion, and through that I've now covered the vast majority of his entire catalog. All that remains (outside of this review you're currently reading) are two one-shots from before this manga (1976's Mikeneko Rock & 2004's Saint Seiya Tenkai-hen Jousou ~overture~ introduction), and all of his post-Ai no Jidai work (minus Fuma no Kojirou: Prelude & Final Chapter, both of which I've covered already). Not just that, but Kurumada himself made sure that this very manga would be finished during his 50th Anniversary year, which came true.

Therefore... "Let's Do the Time Warp Again"!

Despite Saint Seiya ending via cancellation in late 1990, with its proper final chapter even being used to entice people to buy the debut issue of V Jump, it never truly left public consciousness in Japan during the 90s. There was a Game Boy game in 1992 based on the trading card game from Bandai, the manga got re-released by Shueisha in aizouban format from 1995 to early 1997 (while Kurumada was making B't X for Kadokawa Shoten), and in 1996 the band Make-Up temporarily reunited to produce a new Seiya-themed album; not a lot, sure, but just enough to keep it in the memory of fans. Therefore, when Masami Kurumada returned to Shueisha for Ring ni Kakero 2 in 2000 it didn't take long for Saint Seiya to also come back, in some form. It all started with a two-part side-story novel written by Tatsuya Hamazaki & Toei finally starting its anime adaptation of the Hades Chapter in 2002, followed by a manga spin-off/prequel by Megumu Okada, and in 2004 it (kind of) culminated in Saint Seiya Tenkai-hen Jousou ~overture~, the fifth anime movie for the franchise. However, unlike the non-canonical movies from the 80s, this was literally meant to be the "overture" to the next part of the canonical Saint Seiya storyline: The Heaven Chapter. Unfortunately, the end result seemingly did not conform to the story that Kurumada himself had wanted to tell, so the plans for a TV anime that continued off of the fifth movie were scrapped (plus a bunch of other shake-ups regarding staff & cast that I've covered elsewhere) and Kurumada decided that he would instead continue the story of Saint Seiya on his own in manga form, eventually removing all canonicity of the Tenkai-hen movie.

The end result of that whole ordeal, then, was the debut of Saint Seiya: Next Dimension - Meiou Shinwa/Myth of Hades in Combined Issue #22 & 23 of Akita Shoten's Weekly Shonen Champion magazine in 2006. Likely part of the reason for this shift in publisher, aside from the fact that Kurumada had already been working with Akita Shoten for said spin-off manga of Seiya, was because Kurumada had decided to make his Seiya sequel manga in full-color, due to advancements in computer coloring technology, though this did pretty much make it nigh-impossible for Kurumada to serialize it in any sort of consistent fashion for a weekly magazine. Not just that, but the initial chapters were given even more special treatment by being "sealed" together in each issue of Shonen Champion. For a variety of factors (including possibly complaints from other Champion mangaka, who might have felt jealousy over the preferential treatment) the "sealing" aspect was dropped after Chapter 8 in early 2007 (along with chapters from that point on being ~18 pages each, rather than the 7-8 they initially were), and starting with Chapter 15 in early 2009 the manga would be initially serialized in greyscale (with some exceptions, like certain opening pages or super special scenes), while the collected tankouban would continue to be in full-color. From that point on Next Dimension would continue to come out on a highly irregular basis, though once RnK2 was finished in 2008 it would be the only manga Kurumada was actively making until 2014, when he revived Otoko Zaka for his 40th Anniversary. After that Kurumada would alternate between making a new volume's-worth of ND (which he called "Seasons") & making other manga, whether it be more Otoko Zaka (which he wouldn't finish until late 2023) or a variety of short-run manga & one-shots... all with the hardcore Saint Seiya fans having their patience tested & letting their anger be known online; seriously, some people just need to chill out about comics.

Eventually, though, Kurumada got to the finish line, with the 118th & final chapter of Next Dimension appearing in Issue #31 of 2024 that July, and the 16th & final full-color tankouban coming out later that same year on November 8; in the end, ND averaged ~6.5 chapters, or ~0.89 volumes, per year. Therefore, to finish off this blog's year-long celebration of Masami Kurumada's 50th Anniversary, let's see if the 18-year serialization was truly worth it by reviewing Saint Seiya: Next Dimension... what, Kurumada himself didn't make Ai no Jidai for his 40th Anniversary until mid-2015!

[NOTE: Naturally, there will be spoilers regarding the original Saint Seiya manga. This is a sequel, after all.]

Diagnosis: Filler: Saint Seiya's Asgard Chapter

Considering the way anime traditionally gets made nowadays, what with the focus being either on producing for a "cour", i.e. a single calendar season, or being made for a streaming service (which emphasizes individual "seasons"), certain aspects of "the old way of doing things" have become less prevalent in the past decade or so, if not just straight up excised completely, more or less. One of those aspects is something that, to some, might send a chill down their spine with just the mere mention of its name: The Filler Arc. Today the term "filler" in anime (& media, in general, honestly) has been diluted by some to seemingly represent any episode of a series that doesn't directly contribute towards the main plot, even if said episode actually does contribute in some fashion, namely when it comes to something like expanding on a character's development or establishing a status quo that may get challenged later on. However, back in the before time, the long long ago, the term "filler" was used almost exclusively for anime that was adapting from another source (manga, light novel, etc.) that featured content that wasn't a direct adaptation of any sort. This was usually done either to give the anime an original ending (if the source was still ongoing) or to simply prevent the anime from catching up too close to the source (for the same reason), though the latter was seen more for long-running shows. While an episode or two (or three... or more) would often just be enough at points, sometimes it was decided that an entire story arc would be created whole cloth, taking the characters into journeys that had little to no connection to the source material at all.

With that general introduction out of the way let's tackle the first subject for a new "segment" I am calling Diagnosis: Filler; sorry, no Dick Van Dyke to be found here.

I've mentioned this before, but when Masami Kurumada started conceiving of Saint Seiya in the mid-80s, following the (initial) harsh failure of Otoko Zaka, his goal was to aim precisely at a mainstream audience. The end result of this focus was that Saint Seiya was licensed out pretty much instantly (possibly even before the manga itself actually debuted, considering the speed), with Toei Animation getting the rights to produce an anime adaptation & Bandai getting the rights to produce toys. Because of this the Saint Seiya TV anime debuted in Japan on October 11, 1986, only about 10 months after the manga had debuted; still not quite as fast as Tottemo! Luckyman getting its TV anime only eight months after debuting, though. Because of this speed the anime had to rely on a decent amount of "filler" early on, including seeing Seiya & his friends take on a variety of anime-original foes that only appeared for an episode or two, as well as the introduction of the infamous Steel Saints, anime-original allies that were shoehorned into manga-adapted plot; however, all of this also meant that Bandai had more toys to sell! Still, once the story moved over to the battles with the Gold Saints after 40 episodes there really wasn't much that could be done in regards to "filler", outside of a couple of episodes here & there.

By the time the Sanctuary Chapter ended with Episode 73 on April 16, 1988 the Seiya manga was still in the midst of its second story arc, the Poseidon Chapter. Also, the climax of the Sanctuary Chapter resulted in a massive ratings boost for the Seiya anime, with Episode 73 achieving a series high of 20.6, after the battles with the Gold Saints started with a 7.1 for Episode 41; to clarify, most TV anime nowadays wish they could hit the 7s, which only Sazae-san ever surpasses. Therefore, with the next manga story arc still in production & an anime that was super hot, plus Bandai still wanted to sell more toys, it only made sense that Toei would embark on a large-scale filler arc for Saint Seiya. The end result was that Episodes 74 to 99 would tell the story of the Asgard Chapter, something that would only ever be experienced via the anime (though there was later a Chinese doujin manga adaptation) & the end of which would even tie into the start of the anime's eventual adaptation of the Poseidon Chapter, which began with Episode 100 on November 19, 1988. While the Asgard Chapter naturally wouldn't be able to maintain the ratings high that it was starting with, dropping all the way down to the high 4s before returning back to the 6s (the anime itself would end after 114 episodes in the 7s), this filler arc is actually generally well regarded by hardcore Seiya fans & used to often be cited as an example of a "filler arc done right". It would eventually be included in some Saint Seiya video games, alongside the actual manga arcs, & in 2015 would even get a sequel-of-sorts with Saint Seiya: Soul of Gold, a spin-off anime where the Gold Saints fought a new battle in Asgard during the tail end of the Hades Chapter. Due to Saint Seiya's notoriously poor track record in "North of Mexico" the Asgard Chapter (as well as the anime's version of the Poseidon Chapter) wouldn't get an official English translation until April of 2020, when Netflix added both arcs to its stream of the Seiya anime, continuing the brand new English dub produced by Toei & Sentai Studios; Netflix would eventually remove all of Seiya TV, but it'd later get added to Crunchyroll.

As this isn't a "traditional" review I won't be covering the Sentai Studios dub, though I've generally only heard good things about it, but I think it's time that I finally watch the Asgard Chapter myself & see if it still holds up as a seemingly shining example of how filler arcs should be done.

Oh Me, Oh My, OVA! η: ♪Samurai Soul, Hey Hey Oh♪

Last year I wrote a piece about three anime that all debuted in 2004 & featured the word "Samurai" in their titles, despite the three having literally nothing else in common. Naturally, the concept of the samurai is no stranger to anime, and that's especially true when it comes to the good-ol' Original Video Animation. Therefore, let's revisit the concept of "Anime that Feature the Word 'Samurai' in Their Titles", but this time instead of going with full TV series let's instead check out four short-form OVAs that fit this description, all of which predate 2004's "Inadvertent Samurai Trilogy"... even if two of them can only be included in Volume Eta of OM, OM, OVA! by way of a technicality.

So put on some "Samurai Soul" by Ulfuls as we take a look at a bunch of examples of people who may or may not be literal samurai, but they've at least got it deep within them & that's what really counts!... right?

First up we have an OVA with what seriously sounds like something some fly-by-night dollar-bin distributor would have come up with out of sheer laziness... but, no, this is literally its name in Japanese: The Samurai. Now, to be fair, this is actually what the original manga by Mitsuhiro Kasuga is also called, a manga that debuted in the pages of Weekly Young Jump back in 1984 & would run for 20 volumes before eventually getting a semi-sequel (with a different lead), Samurai Deka, that ran in Weekly Comic Bunch from 2002 to 2007 for a further eight volumes (which were later re-released as 20 eBooks). The Samurai was successful enough to warrant the production of both a live-action theatrical film adaptation by Toei that was directed by Norifumi Suzuki (Truck Yaro) & a live-action TV special adaptation by Tsuburaya Productions, which was actually one of Shusuke Kaneko's earlier directorial works, & aired on Fuji TV's Monday Drama Land program. Shockingly enough, both of these came out in 1986, with the TV special airing literally just nine days after the movie starting running in theaters! The following year a 45-minute OVA adaptation of The Samurai would come out on November 1, 1987 & was co-produced by CBS Sony Group, the precursor company of what's now Aniplex. Before it would eventually get locked away in "Aniplex Jail" ADV Films actually licensed & released The Samurai on dual-audio DVD in early 2003, keeping its immensely generic title intact. No one really knows why The Samurai was licensed that long after it first came out in Japan, but it was likely part of a package deal from Aniplex, so I won't judge. To be fair, reviews at the time generally felt that The Samurai was perfectly fine, if nothing especially noteworthy, so time to see if I feel the same about it as those reviews back in the day did over 20 years after its English release

Sangokushi vs. Sangokushi: Nothing "Romantic" About This Encounter, That's For Sure!

Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a story that has had many adaptations... so, so many adaptations. However, when it comes to Japan, most adaptations tend to avoid outright calling themselves what the story is actually called over there: Sangokushi Engi, or just Sangokushi for short. There are all sorts of understandable reasons for that (being able to copyright an original title, not wanting to create confusion with said source material, etc.), and when it comes to various media there tends to be one "definitive" Sangokushi adaptation, at least when it comes to using the original title. The novel... well, that's the OG. For video games there's Koei's iconic grand strategy series. For manga there's Mitsuteru Yokoyama's 60-volume adaptation. For live-action TV there's China's iconic 87-episode series from 1994. As for anime, though, that's where things can get a bit interesting. The reason for that is because the word "Sangokushi", or at least "Sangoku", is seen in a few different anime's titles, like Koutetsu Sangokushi, the various SD Gundam adaptations of the story, Saikyo Bushouden Sangoku Engi, & Yokoyama Mitsuteru Sangokushi (the anime adaptation of Yokoyama's manga). However, there are in fact two completely different anime productions that dared to call themselves nothing more than "Sangokushi", and when you take production time into account they were even in production at the same time, at least for a period.

In other words, it's time for both sides to create teams of three, one from each kingdom, & see which one stands tall over a not-so-unified China!

In Japan Romance is a highly beloved tale, so the idea of adapting it into anime back in the 80s, which (to my knowledge) had not been done yet at that point, was likely taken as a big deal. Therefore, it's not all that much of a surprise that when the first (still existing) anime adaptation of Romance debuted in Japan, it was given some special treatment. Namely, on March 20, 1985 Nippon TV aired the made-for-TV anime movie (also sometimes referred to as a TV special) Sangokushi on its Wednesday Road Show program. There is apparently a TV anime special from 1982 also called Sangokushi, produced by Studio Sangosho & Tezuka Kikaku (no relation to Tezuka Productions?), but it looks to have become lost media & information about it is extremely scarce. Anyway, WRS ran from 1972 to 1985 & was the Japanese equivalent to something like NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies & its many imitators (before the home video market this was how people could watch hit movies at home), and would be replaced with Friday Road Show on October 4, 1985, which NTV still airs to this day. This movie would get re-aired in March of 1986 on FRS in order to get viewers ready for its sequel, Sangokushi II: Amakakeru Otoko-tachi/Soaring Manly Heroes, which first aired on FRS on August 22, 1986. Produced by NTV for 150 million yen (though this amount might only be for the first film?), these movies were animated by Shin-Ei Animation, the studio best known for Doraemon & (later) Crayon Shin-chan, both of which are still in production to this day. These movies also credit themselves as being adaptations of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Sangokushi manga that was still running at the time, to the point that Hikari Production is on the copyright for them, but aside from telling (portions of) the same source story they really aren't, especially visually. These two movies would find themselves fans, such as Masami Tsuda, who'd later go on to be the creator of the manga His & Her Circumstances. However, possibly unbeknownst to Shin-Ei & NTV at the time, there was actually another anime adaptation of Romance in the works while these two movies debuted on TV in Japan, though this wouldn't finally appear until years later.

In the early 80s the production company Shinano Kikaku, formerly (& literally) Soka Gakkai Public Relations Bureau, started production on its own anime adaptation of Romance, hiring Toei Animation to do the animation itself. After 10 years & a budget of 1.5 billion yen, ten times the cost of NTV & Shin-Ei's movies, Shinano Kikaku would finally release Sangokushi Part 1: Eiyuu-tachi no Yoake/Dawn of the Heroes in theaters on January 25, 1992. Yes, much like NTV's movies this was also a multi-part production, three parts this time instead of two, but unlike those movies this trilogy of films were released in theaters on a yearly basis, with the second film, Part 2: Choukou Moeyu!/The Yangtze Burns!, debuting on March 20, 1993, & the third film, Part 3: Harukanaru Daichi/Distant Lands, on April 9, 1994. The first of these films would actually see an official English release as well, as Streamline Pictures would license, dub, & release Dawn of the Heroes in the 90s under the title Great Conquest: The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, even hiring the late Pat Morita to act as the narrator for the dub; Streamline's dub, though, did also cut down the film to 120 minutes, from its original 140 minutes. In 2020 Discotek Media, during its now defunct working relationship with Enoki Films (which handles international licensing for these films, on behalf of Shinano Kikaku), would re-release Great Conquest on double-disc DVD, with the first disc including Streamline's cut down dub & the second including the original uncut Japanese version with English subtitles for the first time, though the other two films would never see official release in English; this would also be the final DVD release Discotek would ever do, as they've only released on Blu-Ray since.

So, with two different anime movie series calling themselves "Sangokushi", which one comes out without rival: NTV or Shinano?

Vaizard: You Only Get One Shot, Do Not Miss Your Chance to Blow; This Opportunity Comes Once in a Lifetime

On June 5, 2001 director & general manager of Enix's publishing division Yoshihiro Hosaka, namely that of its various manga magazines (Shonen Gangan, G Fantasy, Monthly Stencil, etc.) left Enix & founded publisher Mag Garden. Hosaka, alongside Gangan's second editor-in-chief Yoshihiro Iida, felt that Enix had been changing the focus of its manga magazines for the past few years in ways that were not beneficial to their business, & that the company didn't pay any mind to their feelings on the matter. Therefore, Hosaka decided to found his own manga publisher & Iida joined him to act as editor-in-chief... and in turn a bunch of loyal mangaka decided to also ditch Enix & join up with Mag Garden, while a similar scenario happened around the same time which resulted in the founding of Ichijinsha; this has since been colloquially referred to as the "Enix O-Ie Soudou/Enix Family Dispute" in Japan. Understandably, Enix saw this as Mag Garden poaching talent from them, as the departures (to both Mag Garden & Ichijinsha) saw ~80% of Gangan Wing's current roster of mangaka leave at once, while it hurt Monthly Stencil so badly that Enix had to cancel the magazine entirely. In the end, Mag Garden & Enix came to an agreement in March of 2002 that saw Enix promise to not interfere with Mag Garden's business in return for Enix owning 50% of Mag Garden's shares, the ability to appoint two non-executive directors to Mag Garden, receive original planning & production credits on the manga that did initially come from Enix, & receive 10% of the retail price of said manga until Mag Garden got listed on the Japanese stock exchange; the later Square-Enix would eventually sell all of its shares in Mag Garden in 2005.

Obviously this was color in the tankouban,
but ADV Manga greyscaled it.

While talks regarding the terms of the agreement were happening Mag Garden launched its first manga magazine, Monthly Comic Blade, in February of 2002 & of the 21 manga that appeared in Comic Blade during that year 10 of them were transfers/sequels from Enix's magazines. Of the remaining 11 original serializations from 2002 only two of them would end within just a year or so of serialization. The first, van-ditz by Kazusa Saitou (one of the mangaka who jumped ship from Enix), was in Comic Blade's debut issue but would stop after only four chapters in mid-2002, though technically it was considered put on "hiatus", rather than be an actual cancellation; that being said, van-ditz has never returned from hiatus. Meanwhile, debuting in the December 2002 issue of Comic Blade, Gohou Kensei/Sacred Treasure Guardian Vaizard was the 21st manga to debut in the magazine, the last one in 2002, & was the serialized debut for Michihiro Yoshida, only the second mangaka in Comic Blade's history to have absolutely no prior relationship with Enix, following Wataru Maruyama with Desert Coral in Blade's very first issue; Yoshida had previously won the Comic Blade Manga Award Grand Prize for his one-shot Saila ~Ano Hoshi no Umi ni~. However, just barely over a year later, in the January 2004 issue, Vaizard came to an end after only 14 chapters (across three volumes), becoming the first of Comic Blade's initial year of titles to come to an actual end; in fact, Vaizard never got the cover of Comic Blade to itself, not even for its own debut! Coincidentally, Vaizard ended the same exact issue as Ritz Kobayashi's own debut serialization, Fatalizer (which only lasted five chapters), but where Kobayashi would eventually find success with the mahjong manga Saki in 2006... Yoshida was never heard from or seen again.

Yeah, Vaizard is the one & only (serialized) manga ever made by Michihiro Yoshida, and it's essentially impossible to find any additional info about Yoshida, beyond this one manga & their initial one-shot, as there's a Nihon University professor/researcher whose name uses the same exact kanji, but is pronounced Norihiro Yoshida; hell, even Mag Garden's own online listing for Vaizard misspells Yoshida's name as "Norihiro" in katakana! However, just months after its seeming cancellation in Japan ADV Manga included Vaizard in its absurd March 2004 press release where it announced 37 different manga & manhwa that it planned to release in English, and on November 23, 2004 the first volume of Vaizard would see release in English; obviously, Vaizard was part of a larger package deal that included various Comic Blade manga. Unfortunately, despite its short length, ADV Manga would never release another volume of Vaizard, leaving it to the absolute dredges of obscurity... except for the fact that Volume 1 of Vaizard wound up coming out right as I was starting to buy & read manga in late 2004. As a relative newbie to the medium I came across Vaizard, bought that first volume, found it fun & enjoyable, though bummed when no more of it ever saw release in English, and it's always remained in the back of my mind for the past 20+ years. So, after seeing that first volume at an anime con dealer's room a couple of years ago (alongside a bunch of other "one-&-cancelled" ADV Manga releases), I decided to rebuy it... and then I later managed to buy Volumes 2 & 3 from Japan via Suruga-ya & its constant free shipping campaigns.

Now I own all of Vaizard, allowing me to finally read the entirety of one of my earliest manga ever, so let's see how Michihiro Yoshida's one & only (serialized) manga fares over 20 years after it ended. As Eminem once said, "If you had one shot, or one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment; would you capture it or just let it slip?" In this case Michihiro Yoshida played the role of B-Rabbit, and while they seemingly wound up blowing it they at least took grasp of the moment... but does that mean that there's absolutely no merit at all to their one & only manga?

An Introduction to Romance of the Three Kingdoms... in Anime Form

The Han dynasty was a powerful & influential era of Chinese history, and by 100 AD/CE had more or less ruled over the country with little to no truly dynasty-shattering moments since its formation in 202 BC... minus the Xin dynasty that usurped control from 9 to 23 AD/CE, at least. However, following the death of Emperor He in 105 the Han would slowly but steadily decline, as a string of Han emperors following He would all be too young to truly take command right away, resulting in older relatives becoming the de facto rulers, which in turn would result in the actual emperors making political alliances with senior officials & eunuchs to take back control from their greedy elders. This eventually led to the populace starting protests, culminating in what would be known as the Yellow Turban Rebellion in 184, where Zhang Jiao, leader of the Taoist movement the Way of Supreme Peace, managed to accumulate a following of several hundreds of thousands & revolted against the Han. Current ruler Emperor Ling, in turn, decreed that local Chinese governments would supply soldiers to assist the Han generals in taking down the Yellow Turban Rebellion... and this decision would act as the spark to an eventual era of civil war, one where China itself would over time be split up into three powerful kingdoms, an era that wouldn't end until 280, when the Jin dynasty managed to take command of a re-unified China.

In the late 200s, some time after the Jin took control, writer & historian Chen Shou would collect the history of the prior era of civil war into what is now known as Records of the Three Kingdoms, part of what's now called the Twenty-Four Histories of China. Then, sometime in the 14th century, writer & playwright Luo Guanzhong (or, at least, he's the one attributed) took Chen Shou's Records & retold the story of the "Three Kingdoms" in a more dramatic & romanticized fashion, resulting in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the first of what would be considered the six "Great Classical Chinese Novels". Starting at the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Romance focuses primarily on the three warlords who would come to form the titular Three Kingdoms of China: Liu Bei of the Shu Han, Cao Cao of the Cao Wei, & Sun Quan of Eastern Wu. Each of these three warlords had (somewhat) legitimate claims as to why they should be the one to rule over all of China, as Liu Bei was seemingly a blood descendant of Emperor Jin (who ruled from 188-141 BC), & all Liu Bei wanted was to continue the legacy of the Han. Meanwhile, Cao Cao never truly staked a claim over rulership, as he made sure the current Han dynasty was still intact during his conquests & was technically acting on behalf of Emperor Xian, mainly for political reasons. It would be Cao Cao's son, Cao Pi, who actually ended the Han dynasty & established Wei as a kingdom, following his father's death. Finally, Sun Family patriarch Sun Jian had managed to come across the Imperial seal after it was hidden away, which would technically give him power to make official decrees, but through a series of circumstances the seal would eventually wind up with Cao Pi, who used it to legitimize Wei's stance as the "true" successor to the Han. Sun Quan, one of Sun Jian's sons, would initially agree to serve as a vassal of Wei, but eventually broke free after Cao Pi ordered that Quan send his son Sun Deng to the capital as a hostage. Essentially, Liu Bei had the royal lineage, Cao Cao had the Imperial capital (& the Emperor himself), & the Sun Family had the Imperial seal (for a time, at least).

Romance is notable for fictionalizing many aspects of the historical figures & events seen within, like having Liu Bei make an oath of brotherhood with Guan Yu & Zhang Fei in a peach garden (while the three were known to think of each other as brothers in actual history, the peach garden oath in generally agreed to be pure fiction), as well as softening some of the less honorable aspects of the various generals & warlords seen throughout, i.e. romanticization. Romance of the Three Kingdoms remains an all-time classic of an epic novel (around 800,000 words across 120 chapters), and its reach across the world is immeasurable... especially in Japan.