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

Megumu Okada is a Japanese manga artist, best known as the creator of the series ''Shadow Skill'' and ''Saint Seiya Episode.G''. Works * In 1999, he creates the manga , which was serialized in the magazine Afternoon and published by Kodansha. 6 volumes ...

. The series has been adapted into four

original video animations , 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 ...

released from 1995 to 1996 and an

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

adaptation produced by

Studio Deen is a Japanese animation studio founded in 1975 by Sunrise producer Hiroshi Hasegawa and ex-Sunrise animators. The studio owns three subsidiaries: Danny Donghua (丹尼動画), a Chinese sub-contracting studio; Megumi (め組), a digital work sub-c ...

aired on

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as and known colloquially as , is a television station headquartered in the Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, owned and operated by the subsidiary of listed certified b ...

in 1998. In North America, the OVAs have been released by

Manga Entertainment Manga Entertainment was a producer, licensee, and distributor of anime in the United States and the United Kingdom. Originally founded in the UK in 1987, the UK branch became Funimation UK and Ireland in 2021, also currently known as Crunchyro ...

and the anime television series was distributed by

ADV Films A.D. Vision Holdings, Inc. (known simply as ADV and also referred to as ADV Films) was an American multimedia entertainment distributor headquartered in Houston, Texas, and founded in 1992 by video game fan John Ledford and anime fans Matt Gre ...

Plot

''Shadow Skill'' takes place in the warrior kingdom of Kurda, where the main character Elle Regu has recently become the 59th Sevaar, a title awarded to their most elite warriors. She often leaves a trail of destruction when she fights and along with a drinking habit. Elle is constantly followed by debts and throughout the series takes on jobs to work off these debts. One of these such jobs leads her to the Green Octopus Inn on an island outside the city, which eventually becomes the protagonists' base of operation. Throughout the series, Elle travels along with her adopted younger brother Gau Ban, who is studying Elle's fighting skills so that one day he could become the greatest ''Sevaar'' in Kurda. Also in Elle and Gau's life is Faulink Maya (Faulee), a Sui Rame talisman sorceress, and Kyuo Liu, a Septia beast-catcher and grandniece of Eva Stroll, the king of Kurda. Warriors in Kurda fight using the Kurdan-style Kōsappō (交殺法, lit. "combining kill methods", ''ADV'' dub: "annihilation techniques") which has two general divisions: ''Hyōgi'' (表技, lit. "bright skills"), which emphasize punches and throws, and ''Eigi'' (影技, lit. "shadow skills"), which focus on kicks and the user's footwork.

Media

Manga

The ''Shadow Skill''

series was originally created by

as a self-published ''

dōjinshi , also romanized as ', is the Japanese term for self-published print works, such as magazines, manga, and novels. Part of a wider category of '' doujin'' (self-published) works, ''doujinshi'' are often derivative of existing works and created ...

''. In 1992, it was picked up by

Takeshobo is a major publisher in Japan. Takeshobo was founded in 1972 by Kyōichirō Noguchi, starting Japan's first Mahjong magazine . Other magazines, such as a magazine dedicated to mahjong-themed manga, as well as a magazine dedicated to yonkoma ma ...

for serialization in its '' shōnen'' magazine ''Comic Gamma''. The magazine ceased publication in 1996; a total of four ''

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 ...

'' (bound volumes) collecting the manga's chapters were released during that time. ''Shadow Skill'' was carried over by publisher

Fujimi Shobo , formerly , was a Japanese publisher that specialized in light novels, manga, role-playing games and collectible card games. Founded in 1972 and reorganized three times, it was at times an independent company and at times an imprint of Kadokawa F ...

in its magazine '' Monthly Dragon Jr.'' until 1998; another four volumes were released by that publisher.

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

then gained the rights to ''Shadow Skill'' and released the existing chapters in three large aizōban volumes from 1999 to 2000. The following year, Okada began regularly publishing new chapters in the publisher's ''

seinen is an editorial category of Japanese comics marketed toward young adult men. In Japanese, the word ''seinen'' literally means "youth", but the term "''seinen'' manga" is also used to describe the target audience of magazines like ''Weekly Ma ...

'' magazine ''Afternoon Season Zōkan'', and later in ''

Monthly Afternoon is a Japanese monthly ''seinen'' manga anthology published by Kodansha under the ''Afternoon'' line of magazines. The first issue was released with a cover date of January 25, 1986. ''Afternoon'' has spawned many successful manga series such as ...

'' and '' Good Afternoon''. Okada took a hiatus from the manga in 2006, but continued in 2009, submitting new chapters every other month, until finishing the series in 2014. In total, the Kodansha released the entire ''Shadow Skill'' manga in three ''aizōban'' and an additional 11 ''tankōbon''.

Anime

OVAs

There have been a number of

productions based on the ''Shadow Skill'' manga. It was first adapted into 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) by Zero-G Room and released in Japan on October 25, 1995. Three additional OVA episodes were produced and released from September 21 to November 21, 1996. The first volume was officially numbered "volume 2.5" in Japan due to its chronological place among the four episodes. All four OVAs were licensed in North America and the United Kingdom by

. The latter three episodes were compiled and released in English-speaking regions as ''Shadow Skill: The Movie'', while the first OVA was later released as ''Shadow Skill: The Origin''. Finally, a single

cel shaded Cel shading or toon shading is a type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make 3-D computer graphics appear to be flat by using less shading color instead of a shade gradient or tints and shades. A cel shader is often used to mimic th ...

CGI animation Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the use of computer graphics to create or contribute to images in art, printed media, video games, simulators, and visual effects in films, television programs, shorts, commercials, and videos. The images m ...

OVA titled was produced by Tandm and released in Japan on October 2, 2004.

TV series

A 26-episode television series titled was produced by

and aired on

from July 2 to December 24, 1998.

licensed the series in the United States.

Reception

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 ...

praised the series' Japanese and English voice acting, saying they did a good job capturing the light-hearted tone of the series. However, they felt the series stuck to the conventions of the martial arts genre with the plot focusing on fight scenes and the elaborate named moves being shouted aloud as they "powered up". As such, they thought that ''Shadow Skill'' appeals primarily to fans of the genre, but it was unlikely to appeal to viewers outside that fanbase. THEM Anime Reviews described the OVA series as "well executed" and "fun to watch". But they advised that Shadow Skill would mainly appeal to fans of the martial arts genre and that it lacked the story development and characterization needed to truly become a great anime.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Studio Deen 1992 manga 1995 anime OVAs 1998 anime television series debuts ADV Films Martial arts anime and manga Seinen manga Shōnen manga Takeshobo manga Fujimi Shobo manga Kodansha manga Studio Deen Madman Entertainment anime