#souji yamakawa

[welcometopulpland]

The Absolute Unit that is the Kumán musical

Many Mexicans have known that the first Latin American rock opera is a Tarzan clone by Cristal Y Acero, but barely anyone knows that it’s none other than an unofficial adaptation of The Boy Champion (少年王者), Kumán.

Keep in mind that thanks to being a Cristal Y Acero creation, the musical’s plot is barely different enough not to cause a lawsuit from the companies that distributed Sōji Yamakawa’s works during his lifetime.

[welcometopulpland]

Sōji Yamakawa’s The Boy Champion (少年王者) deserves to get international recognition for influencing some Shōnen manga classics like Sanpei Shirato’s Sasuke and Shotaro Ishinomori’s Ryu the Cave Boy. What a bonkers classic.

yamakawa souji

[recentanimenews]

Shueisha Plans Weekly Shonen Jump's Three-Part 50th Anniversary Exhibitions in Tokyo

Shueisha today launched an official website and Twitter for the upcoming three-part 50th anniversary exhibition for its signature manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump to reveal more details including the 63 titles for its first selection. The top-selling Japanese manga magazine was established as a bi-weekly magazine in 1968 and then went to weekly in the following year. According to Japan Magazine Publishers Association (JMPA), its current circulation is about 2 million copies, which is less than one-third of its peak of 6.53 million in 1995.

  The first part "The Beginning of The Legend" introducing the magazine's classic titles from its launch to the 1980s is scheduled to be held at Mori Arts Center Gallery in Tokyo between July 18 and October 15. The second part "The Impact of The 6.53 Million Copies" for the 1990s works will follow in the spring of 2018, then the third part "The Present of The Evolving Strongest Magazine" for the 2000s and current works is set in the summer of the year. Advance tickets for the first part will go on sale at the

Seven-Eleven stores in Japan on May 13 and will be available till July 17.

    Main visual for the first part "The Beginning of The Legend"

「創刊50周年記念 週刊少年ジャンプ展VOL.1 創刊～1980年代、伝説のはじまり」公式サイトがいよいよグランドオープン！チケットなどの最新情報はこちらでチェック→ https://t.co/HU4E9HPgCo #ジャンプ展

— 週刊少年ジャンプ展 (@shonenjump_ten) May 7, 2017

    63 titles to be featured in the first part

  "Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen-mae Hashutsujo" (Osamu Akimoto)

"Mashonen B.T."/"JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" (Hirohiko Araki)

"Circuit no Okami" (Satoshi Ikezawa)

"Kami-sama wa Southpaw"/"Sora no Campus" (Shinji Imaizumi)

"Susume Pirate!"/"Stop! Hibari-kun" (Hisashi Eguhi)

"Tsuide ni Tonchinkan" (Koichi Endoh)

"Chichi no Tamashii" (Hiroshi Kaizuka)

"Hole in One" (Takeji Kagami/Tatsuo Kanai)

"Samurai Giants" (Ikki Kajiwara/Ko Inoue)

"Wingman"/"Video Girl" (Masakazu Katsura)

"Hochonin Ajihei" (Jiro Gyu/Jo Big)

"Ring ni Kakero"/"Fuuma no Kojiro"/"Otokozaka"/"Saint Seiya" (Masami Kurumada)

"Todai Icchokusen" (Yoshinori Kobayashi)

"1.2 no Ahho!" (Kontaro)

"Moeru! Oniisan" (Tadashi Sato)

"Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken" (Riku Sanjo, Yuji Horii, Koji Inada)

"Sannen Kimengumi"/"High School! Kimengumi" (Motoei Sinzawa)

"Captain Tsubasa" (Yoichi Takahashi)

"Akutare Kyojin"/"Ginga-Nagareboshi Gin-" (Yoshihiro Takahashi)

"Play Ball" (Akio Chiba)

"Yoroshiku Mechadoc" (Ryuji Tsugihara)

"Cobra" (Buichi Terasawa)

"Tennis Boy" (Satoshi Terajima, Kenichi Kotani)

"Astro Kyudan" (Shirō Touzaki, Norihiro Nakajima)

"Shape Up Ran"/"Jungle no Ouja Tar-chan" (Masaya Tokuhiro)

"Toilet Hakase" (Kazuyoshi Torii)

"Dr.Slump"/"Dragon Ball" (Akira Toriyama)

"Harenchi Gakuen" (Go Nagai)

"Hadashi no Gen" (Keiji Nakazawa)

"THE MOMOTAROH" (Makoto Niwano)

"BASTARD!! Ankoku no Hakaishin" (Kazushi Hagiwara)

"Cyborg Jiichan G" (Shige Hijikata)

"Black Angels" (Shinji Hiramatsu)

"Doberman Deka" (Buronson, Shinji Hiramatsu)

"Hokuto no Ken" (Buronson, Tetsuo Hara)

"Cat's Eye"/"City Hunter" (Tsukasa Hojo)

"Blue City" (Yukinobu Hoshino)

"God Sider" (Kouji Maki)

"Geki! Gokutora Ikka"/"Sakigake!! Otokojuku" (Akira Miyashita)

"Otoko Ippiki Gaki-Taisho"/"Yamasaki Ginjiro"/"Sawayaka Manjiro"/"Yabure Kabure" (Hiroshi Motomiya)

"Rokudenashi Blues" (Masanori Morita)

"Yokai Hunter"/"Koushi Ankokuden" (Daijiro Morohoshi)

"Koya no Shonen Isamu" (Souji Yamakawa, Noboru Kawasaki)

"Kinnikuman" (Yudetamago)

"Dokonjo Gaeru" (Yasumi Yoshizawa)

    Source: "Weekly Shonen Jump 50th Anniversary exhibition" official website

  By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[welcometopulpland]

This is Kenya Boy (少年ケニヤ), the cult classic film that spawned one of the most beautiful anime film posters in the 1980s.

OUT (08/1981) - Kenya Boy (Shōnen Kenya) anime film.

[welcometopulpland]

Some Details from the scrapped The Boy Champion (少年王者) anime adaptation’s beyond screwy history

According to the dead X/twitter link sent to the shadow realm, the scrapped Boy Champion anime adaptation’s proposed director and writer was the incredible Kinji Fukasaku of Battles Without Honor and Humanity fame. The scrapped show was likely made with thirty episodes in mind, since its summary might’ve been similar to its own source materials of the same name.

It’s almost certainly a good thing that the 1970s anime adaptation of the Boy Champion remains scrapped, because he had to escape a very smallish anime studio without being misled too much by its super bad higher ups, and the rest was history. Also playing a factor in the adaptation’s cancellation is that such a smallish studio might’ve spiritually preceded the infamous and now defunct Gainax by about 13 years or more.

After the Boy Champion anime adaptation’s cancellation, his major role was in helping to diversify yakuza movies, ensuring that Battles Without Honour and Humanity would popularise the jitsoroku movie subgenre due to the large amount of depressing real life events in the country during that time.

He would’ve ended his career without BWH&H’s utterly international success. Also, that seminal yakuza franchise was inspired by its eponymous book sources by Kōichi Iiboshi. Even more interestingly, the notorious journalist’s best known works in turn began as magazine articles based on the memoirs of Kōzō Minō, a rather infamous yakuza of the 1960s and 1970s.

[welcometopulpland]

Introducing the scrapped The Boy Champion (少年王者) Anime Adaptation

I’ve first heard of it on a currently gone X/twitter site (via a dead link which was sent to the shadow realm) which might’ve belonged to a major collector-historian of uncommon manga and ephemeral anime rarities, who still has his old FC2 website. Before the link was sent to the shadow realm, the only visual evidence consisted of the scrapped adaptation’s summarised screenplay and the logo sitting on top of it.

Even though the collector certainly sold it to a veteran anime fan who likely keeps himself private, I’d rather leave the guy who bought it alone.

There is hope that more and more people outside of Japan are buying vintage Japanese mangas and books that aren’t made by Go Nagai and Haruki Murakami, the late and great Osamu Tezuka, sci fi godfather Juza Unno or the insanely prolific Shotaro Ishinomori and etcetera. Even a huge majority of book nerds in Japan do not know that there was a pilot, which was for the scrapped anime adaptation of the Boy Champion.

[welcometopulpland]

Look at this knockoff translation of the Kenya Boy (少年ケニヤ) manga adaptation by Kyuuta Ishikawa (石川球太)!

[welcometopulpland]

Because of its surprisingly nutty history at Toei Animation, the Kenya Boy (少年ケニヤ) (1984) anime film is known to be one of the best bad anime films ever made. Did ya think the messed up machinations of a certain Kadokawa family member might imply that it was doomed from the start? The profits of the Kadokawa group (and their spinoff companies) from dumping potential franchises back and forth is the most likely reason that the film itself could only succeed largely in some home video markets around the world.

Shounen Kenya (1984)

[welcometopulpland]

Jangli Mera Naam is a 1994 live action Pakistani Lollywood Mockbuster of both Kenya Boy movies released in 1954 and 1984! It can be found on VHS, VCD and DVD.

[welcometopulpland]

This is the 1960s version of Sōji Yamakawa’s The Boy Champion (少年王者). I can’t frigging help but adore this little bugger in all his whinnying glory!

yamakawa souji

[welcometopulpland]

The Kenya Boy (少年ケニヤ) series began its life as a revision of a Kamishibai play which was scrapped due to WW2, prompting its creator Souji Yamakawa to turn it into a picture story. While Kenya Boy undoubtedly inspired Shotaro Ishinomori’s Cyborg 009 and 009-1 manga series, as well as having influenced Taito’s Safari and Jungle King/Jungle Hunt arcade games, it deserves to be remembered and celebrated in its own right. 

yamakawa souji

[welcometopulpland]

Sōji Yamakawa’s The Boy Champion (少年王者) is already one of the most iconic picture book characters in Japanese history. Here is the 1977 Shueisha reprint of some stories where he did appear. Unfortunately, the whole series hasn’t been completed in both serial and book forms since his passing on the 17th of December 1992.

yamakawa souji