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.