''Nineteen 19'' is a Japanese

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) 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 prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series written and illustrated by Shō Kitagawa. It was serialized in

Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...

's ''

Weekly Young Jump is a Japanese ''seinen'' manga magazine published by Shueisha. Launched in 1979, it is published under Shueisha's ''Jump'' line of magazines. The chapters of series that run in ''Weekly Young Jump'' are collected and published in ''tankōbon'' v ...

'' from 1988 to 1990, with its chapters collected in twelve ''

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

'' volumes. An

original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...

(OVA) adaptation by Madhouse was released in July 1990.

Synopsis

Kazushi Kubota is a 19-year-old college student meets again his junior high school first love at a club, Masana Fujisaka, a medical student who models as a side job, and had recently broken up with her longtime boyfriend. Kubota sees the perfect opportunity to ask her out.

Characters

; : ; :

Media

Manga

''Nineteen 19'', written and illustrated by , was serialized in

's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''

'' from 1988 to 1990. Shueisha collected its chapters in twelve '' wideban'' volumes, released from January 1989 to February 1991. A prologue chapter to a sequel, titled ''19 Forever'', was published in Shueisha's '' Oh Super Jump'' in December 2010, while the three chapters of ''19 Forever'' were published on the Creek & River's crowdfounding platform ''Trigger'' in 2017. A collected volume, which contains the prologue and the three chapters, was released as an

ebook An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...

on April 6, 2018.

OVA

The manga was adapted into an

(OVA) by Madhouse, directed by

Koichi Chigira is a Japanese animator and director who has directed several anime series, usually working with Gonzo and formerly worked at Madhouse. Chigira is best known for directing ''Full Metal Panic!'' and ''Last Exile''. Career Chigira joined Tatsu ...

, with character designs by , scripts by Yuji Kawahara and music by Hiroshi Sakamoto. It was released on July 27, 1990.

Reception

In '' The Anime Encyclopedia: A Century of Japanese Animation'', by

Jonathan Clements Jonathan Michael Clements (born 9 July 1971) is a British author and scriptwriter. His non-fiction works include biographies of Confucius, Koxinga and Qin Shi Huang, as well as monthly opinion columns for '' Neo'' magazine. He is also the co-aut ...

and

Helen McCarthy Helen McCarthy (born 27 February 1951) is the British author of such anime reference books as ''500 Manga Heroes and Villains'', ''Anime!'', ''The Anime Movie Guide'' and ''Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation''. She is the co-author of ...

, they wrote: " tale of

yuppie Yuppie, short for "young urban professional" or "young upwardly-mobile professional", is a term coined in the early 1980s for a young professional person working in a city. The term is first attested in 1980, when it was used as a fairly neu ...

love isn’t what most Westerners expect from the Madhouse team, renowned abroad for horror like '' Wicked City'', but this exudes quiet charm and elegance." Justin Sevakis of

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and oth ...

wrote: "''Nineteen19'' is a reflection on a simpler time, on youth, and first loves. It's a rare, fashionably-idealized look at what it means to be a single guy, and a window on a world and a pop culture that doesn't exist anymore, if it ever really existed at all."

References

External links

* {{Madhouse OVAs Madhouse (company) Romance anime and manga Seinen manga Shueisha manga