This anime has since been re-reviewed in a more comprehensive & detailed manner via Retrospect in Retrograde, which you can read at this link.
Haruto Umezawa is one of those mangaka that North American fans likely don't know of, but I can honestly see have a bit of a fanbase over here if his titles were more well known. He started off in the industry as an assistant to Tsukasa Hojo and then broke out on his own with
Hareluya, a manga about the literal "Son of God" who is sent down to live as a human in order to learn humility; I sent in a short review of that manga for ANN's Right Turn Only!, and it was posted
this past September.
Hareluya ended (read: likely canceled) after only one volume, but Umezawa seemingly felt that his characters had potential so he gave it another go with a reboot:
Hareluya II BØY, which removed the whole "son of God" angle and instead treated Hareluya as a normal human... Well, as "normal" as a character like him can be.
BØY became a very successful title for Shonen Jump, even becoming a Top 3 title a few times, and ran from 1992-1999, totaling 33 volumes, his longest title to date. Throughout 1997 Triangle Staff, a now-defunct studio whose biggest titles were
Magic User's Club,
Macross Plus, &
Serial Experiments Lain, made an animated TV adaptation of
Hareluya II BØY that ran in the early days of "modern-day" late-night anime, also making it the first late-night Jump anime. Unfortunately, this anime is extremely obscure & rare but it's also one of the most unique anime productions to come from the pages of Shonen Jump.
Kiyoshiro Okamoto is just starting his time at Rakuen High School and has only one dream: To go to Paris and become a painter; he even secretly breaks Rakuen's rules and works part-time at a construction site so that he can save money for the trip. One night on his way home he gets harassed by Shozou Momiyama, the "leader" of Rakuen's delinquents, but is saved by Hareluya Hibino, a classmate of his who was suspended on the first day of school for beating up come upperclassmen. Hareluya's dream is a simple one: World Domination. Shortly afterwards the duo meet two of their classmates: Michiru Yamana, a girl who dreams of becoming a jewelry designer & sells her work on the street, & Makoto Ichijou, who fronts his own band, Fire Guns, and dreams of becoming a rock star. Together, the four of them will support each other & help out those who are in trouble.
