is a Japanese

coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can b ...

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

series written and illustrated by Kazuhiko Shimamoto. It was serialized in

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of comics, magazines, light novels, dictionaries, literature, non-fiction, home media, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but ...

's ''seinen'' manga magazine '' Weekly Young Sunday'' from March 2007 to July 2008, when the magazine ceased its publication; a chapter was published in ''YS Special'' in October 2008, before being transferred to Shogakukan's then-brand-new manga magazine '' Monthly Shōnen Sunday'' in May 2009. ''Aoi Honō'' is a fictionalized account of Shimamoto's time as a student at the Osaka University of Arts, which he attended alongside

Hideaki Anno is a Anime, Japanese animator, filmmaker, Film producer, producer, and voice actor. His most celebrated creation, the Neon Genesis Evangelion (franchise), ''Evangelion'' franchise, has had a significant influence on the anime television industr ...

Hiroyuki Yamaga is a Japanese anime director and producer, and a founding member of the animation studio Gainax. He is best known for directing the film '' Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise'' (1987) at age 24, directing '' Mahoromatic'' (2001), '' Mag ...

, and

Takami Akai is an illustrator, game creator, character designer and animator. Career history Akai attended Osaka University of Arts majoring in fine art . While studying there, Akai created the character designs for the Nihon SF Taikai, Daicon III openin ...

. It was adapted into a live-action

Japanese television drama , also called or J-drama, are television programs that are a staple of Television in Japan, Japanese television and are broadcast daily. Format All major Television networks, TV networks in Japan produce a variety of Drama (genre), drama serie ...

, titled ''Blue Fire'' in English, that aired from July to October 2014. The drama was streamed on Viki with English subtitles. The real Takami Akai and Hiroyuki Yamaga make cameos in the television series: Akai plays a bathhouse manager in episode 10, while Yamaga plays the bartender at a restaurant where his counterpart passes out (which, according to Yamaga, is based on an actual incident) in episode 7.

Cast

* Yūya Yagira – Moyuru Honō * Ken Yasuda –

Tsuyoshi Muro is a Japanese actor who appears on stage and screen. He debuted as an actor in 1999 and has appeared in the " Bayside Shakedown" series, NHK's '' Gochisosan'', and '' Yūsha Yoshihiko''. Filmography Film * '' Hentai Kamen'' (2013) * '' Jossy's' ...

–

* Tomoya Nakamura –

* Mizuki Yamamoto – Tonko Morinaga *

Yuina Kuroshima is a Japanese actress, model and TV personality. Personal life On January 16, 2024, Kuroshima and actor Hio Miyazawa jointly announced through their official websites that they were expecting their first child together. They also revealed th ...

– Hiromi Tsuda * Kaname Endō –

Masahiko Minami is a Japanese anime producer and president of Bones. Early life Minami was born in Mie Prefecture, Japan. Career A graduate of the Osaka University of Arts's department of arts, Minami joined the noted anime studio Sunrise in 1984, whe ...

* Gaku Hamada –

Toshio Okada is an anime producer, author, and lecturer. He is a co-founder and former president of the production company Gainax. He is portrayed by actor Gaku Hamada in the 2014 TV Drama '' Aoi Honō'' based on the autobiographical manga by his fellow K ...

* Kenji Urai – Kentarō Yano * Yui Ichikawa – Jun Iwase *

Haruna Kojima is a Japanese entrepreneur, actress, model, and former singer. From 2005 to 2017, she was a member of idol group AKB48 under Team A. In 2018, she founded her own brand, "Her lip to". Career Kojima was born in Urawa-ku, Saitama, Saitama Pref ...

– Masumi *Seika Taketomi – Miyuki * Jirō Satō – MAD Holy *Anna Kon'no –

Rumiko Takahashi is a Japanese manga artist. With a career of several commercially successful works, beginning with ''Urusei Yatsura'' in 1978, she is one of Japan's best-known and wealthiest manga artists. Her works are known worldwide, where they have been tra ...

–

Osamu Tezuka Osamu Tezuka (, born , ''Tezuka Osamu'', – 9 February 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist and animator. Considered to be among the greatest and most influential cartoonists of all time, his prolific output, pioneering techniques an ...

Voice

Tōru Furuya is a Japanese actor and narrator. As a child, he was a member of Gekidan Himawari, a children's acting troupe. He is currently employed by the talent management firm Aoni Production, since 1982. Furuya is most known for the anime roles of Amur ...

– Narrator and Katsuya Niimi (''

Nine 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Hindu–Arabic digit Circa 300 BC, as part of the Brahmi numerals, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bot ...

'') *

Hiromi Tsuru was a Japanese actress and narrator. During her life, she was attached to the Himawari Theatre Group as a child and then to Aoni Production at the time of her death. She was most known for voicing the character of Bulma ('' Dragon Ball'') for ...

– Yuri Nakao (''Nine'') *

Makio Inoue was a Japanese actor and voice actor. He is most noted for his two longstanding roles, as the title character in Captain Harlock from 1978 through the 1980s and 1990s, and Goemon Ishikawa XIII of ''Lupin III'' from 1977 to 2011. Career Inou ...

–

Captain Harlock (manga) , also titled Captain Harlock, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Leiji Matsumoto. It was serialized in Akita Shoten's ''Play Comic'' from January 1977 to June 1979, with the chapters collected into five volumes. The ser ...

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Space Pirate Captain Harlock , also titled Captain Harlock, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Leiji Matsumoto. It was serialized in Akita Shoten's ''Play Comic'' from January 1977 to June 1979, with the chapters collected into five volumes. The ser ...

'') *

Masako Nozawa is a Japanese actress. Beginning work as a child actress at the age of three, by the time she became an adult, voice acting had inadvertently become her main occupation. Throughout her career, Nozawa has been affiliated with Production Baobab ...

– Tetsuro (''

Galaxy Express 999 is a Japanese manga series. It is written and illustrated by Leiji Matsumoto, later adapted into a number of anime films and television series. It is set in a spacefaring, high-tech future in which humans have learned how to transfer ...

'') * Masako Ikeda – Maetel (''Galaxy Express 999'') * – Joe Yabuki ('' Ashita no Joe'') * – Yōko Shiraki (''Ashita no Joe'') *

Kōichi Yamadera is a Japanese actor, narrator and singer from Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture. He graduated from Tohoku Gakuin University's economics school and is currently affiliated with Across Entertainment. Before that, he was affiliated with the Tokyo Acto ...

– Captain ,

Susumu Kodai is a fictional character appearing in ''Space Battleship Yamato''. In the ''Star Blazers'' localization, he is known as Derek Wildstar, also known as Jason Kodai in the English dub of the Space Battleship Yamato (1977 film), first ''Yamato'' mo ...

and (''

Space Battleship Yamato is a Japanese science fiction anime series written by Yoshinobu Nishizaki, directed by manga artist Leiji Matsumoto, and produced by Academy Productions. The series aired in Yomiuri TV from October 6, 1974 to March 30, 1975, totaling u ...

'') *

Katsumi Toriumi is a Japanese voice actor from Saitama Prefecture. He works at Production Baobab. Toriumi performed with other voice actors on the album ''Everybody's Christmas''. Voice roles *Hazuki in ''Pokémon'' *Dalida Lolaha Chandra II in ''Mobile Suit G ...

– Masato Wakamatsu ('' Miyuki'') *

Ryōtarō Okiayu is a Japanese actor, voice actor and singer affiliated with Aoni Production. His major roles include Byakuya Kuchiki in ''Bleach'', Treize Khushrenada in ''Mobile Suit Gundam Wing'', Hisashi Mitsui in ''Slam Dunk'', Meisuke Nueno in '' Hell T ...

– Jun Kenzaki ('' Ring ni Kakero'') *

Kappei Yamaguchi , better known by his stage name , is a Japanese actor, voice actor, and '' rakugoka'' affiliated with Gokū and 21st Century Fox.Doi, Hitoshi"Yamaguchi Kappei" ''Seiyuu Database''. January 11, 2011. Retrieved January 10, 2011. After making his ...

– Nobotta Ōyama (''Otoko Oidon'')

Media

Manga

''Aoi Honō'' is written and illustrated by Kazuhiko Shimamoto. The manga debuted in

's ''seinen'' manga magazine '' Weekly Young Sunday'' on March 8, 2007. After the magazine ceased publication on July 31, 2008, a chapter of '' Aoi Honō'' was published the ''

Big Comic Spirits is a weekly Japanese ''seinen'' manga magazine published by Shogakukan. The first issue was published on October 14, 1980. Food, sports, romance and business are recurring themes in the magazine, and the stories often question conventional val ...

'' special supplementary issue ''YS Special'' in October 2008. The series was then transferred to the brand new manga magazine '' Monthly Shōnen Sunday'' on May 12, 2009. Shogakukan has collected its chapters into individual volumes. The first volume was released on February 5, 2008. As of July 11, 2024, 30 volumes have been released.

Volumes

Reception

Volume 2 sold 24,521 copies by May 17, 2009, volume 9 sold 20,415 copies by November 18, 2012, and volume 10 sold 17,068 copies by June 16, 2013. ''Aoi Honō'' was one of the Jury Recommended Works in the Story Manga division at the 13th Japan Media Arts Festival Awards in 2009. In 2010, the manga received 23 points in the 3rd

Manga Taishō The is a Japanese List of comics awards, comics award recognizing achievement in manga. It is awarded annually to a manga series published in the previous calendar year of eight or fewer Tankōbon, collected volumes in length. The Manga Taish� ...

, placing last among the ten nominees. The manga received Excellence Award of the Manga Division at the 18th Japan Media Arts Festival Awards in 2014. In 2015, along with '' Asahinagu'', it won the 60th

Shogakukan Manga Award The is one of Japan's major manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is ...

in the General category. In February 2015, ''

Asahi Shimbun is a Japanese daily newspaper founded in 1879. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. The ''Asahi Shimbun'' is one of the five largest newspapers in Japan along with the ''Yom ...

'' announced that ''Aoi Honō'' was one of nine nominees for the nineteenth annual

Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Named after Osamu Tezuka, the is a yearly manga prize awarded to manga artists or their works that follow the Osamu Tezuka manga approach founded and sponsored by Asahi Shimbun. The prize has been awarded since 1997, in Tokyo, Japan. Current ...

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{Shogakukan Manga Award - General 2014 Japanese television series debuts 2014 Japanese television series endings Coming-of-age anime and manga Manga adapted into television series Seinen manga Shogakukan manga Shōnen manga Television shows set in Osaka Television shows written by Yûichi Fukuda TV Tokyo original programming Winners of the Shogakukan Manga Award for general manga