is a Japanese

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

manga series written and illustrated by

Masakazu Katsura is a Japanese manga artist, known for several works of manga, including ''Wing-Man'', ''Shadow Lady'', ''DNA²'', '' Video Girl Ai'', '' I"s'', and '' Zetman''. He has also worked as character designer for '' Iria: Zeiram the Animation'', ''Ti ...

. It was serialized in ''

Weekly Shōnen Jump is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the ''Jump'' line of magazines. The manga series within the magazine consist of many action scenes and a fair amount of comedy. The chapters of the series that run ...

'' from 1983 to 1985, with the chapters collected into 13 ''

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...

'' volumes by

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 ...

Synopsis

''Wing-Man'' is the story of Kenta Hirono, a fan of superheroes and

sentai In Japanese, is a military unit and may be literally translated as " squadron", " task force", " division (of ships)", "group" or "wing". The terms "regiment" and "flotilla", while sometimes used as translations of ''sentai'', are also used t ...

television shows to the point where he dreams of becoming such a hero himself. To that end, he creates a superhero of his own called "Wingman," and, much to the chagrin of his teachers, acts out his fantasies of being Wingman at school. When Kenta meets Aoi Yume, the beautiful blue-haired princess of an alternate universe called Podreams, he gets his chance to make his fantasy come true, as Aoi carries a book called a Dream Note which can make any dream come true, and Kenta draws a picture of Wingman in the book, allowing him to become Wingman for real. Kenta, Aoi and Kenta's classmate and love interest, Miku Ogawa, team up to save Podreams from the evil dictator Rimel, who wants to use the Dream Note to take over Podreams, while Kenta deals with his conflicting feelings for both of his female compatriots.

Characters

; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;Kenta's Father ;Kenta's Mother ; ; ;Principal ;Vice Principal ; ; ; ; ; ; (

Kōzō Shioya is a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator from Kagoshima Prefecture. He is represented by Aoni Production. His younger brother Yoku Shioya is also an actor and voice actor. Biography Filmography Television animation ;1980s *''Mobile Suit ...

in episode 7) ; ; ; ;

Media

Anime

The manga was adapted into an

anime is hand-drawn and 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 Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

television series titled in 1984, produced by

Toei Animation () is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including ''Sally the Witch,'' '' GeGeGe no Kitarō,'' '' Mazinger Z'', '' Galaxy Express 999'', '' Cutie Honey'', '' Dr. Slu ...

and airing on

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as (also known as EX and and stylized as TV asahi), is a television station that is owned and operated by the subsidiary of certified broadcasting holding company , itself controlled by The Asahi Shimbun Comp ...

. It also had a 1984

visual novel A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...

adventure game adaptation of the same name, developed by TamTam and published by

Enix was a Japanese video game publisher that produced video games, anime and manga. Enix is known for publishing the ''Dragon Quest'' series of role-playing video games. The company was founded by Yasuhiro Fukushima on September 22, 1975, as . Th ...

for the NEC PC-8801 and other Japanese

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...

s. It featured a

point-and-click Point and click are the actions of a computer user moving a pointer to a certain location on a screen (''pointing'') and then pressing a button on a mouse, usually the left button (''click''), or other pointing device. An example of point and ...

interface, where a

cursor Cursor may refer to: * Cursor (user interface), an indicator used to show the current position for user interaction on a computer monitor or other display device * Cursor (databases), a control structure that enables traversal over the records in ...

is used to interact with on-screen objects,
Translation
similar to '' Planet Mephius'' (1983) and the

NES The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...

version of '' Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken'' (1985).
Translation
The anime, featuring character designs by Yoshinori Kanemori and intended by Toei Animation to be a strong shōnen title following the female-targeted ''

Ai Shite Knight is a shōjo manga created in the early 1980s by Kaoru Tada. An anime adaptation was released in 1983 until 1984, running for 42 episodes by Toei Animation. A live action adaptation was also produced. The manga is licensed in English by M'z ...

'', marked the first anime adaptation of one of Katsura's works (Katsura himself would later appear as Wingman in a live-action adaptation of ''

Video Girl Ai ''Video Girl Ai'', known in Japan as simply , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masakazu Katsura. It was serialized in Shueisha's ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from December 1989 to April 1992. It was followed by a short seq ...

'') and the debut role of

Ryo Horikawa Ryo may refer to: * Ryō, a gold currency unit in pre-Meiji Japan Shakkanhō system * Ryō (actress) (born 1973), Japanese model, actress, and singer * Ryō (given name), a unisex Japanese given name * Ryo, Georgia, an unincorporated community in G ...

as Kenta. The anime's ending is different from that of the manga, the manga ending was never animated but was dramatized with the anime's voice actors on a drama LP.

Notes

References

External links

Wing-Man at Toei Animation
* {{Tomoharu Katsumata 1983 manga 1984 anime television series debuts Masakazu Katsura Science fiction anime and manga Shōnen manga Shueisha franchises Shueisha manga Superheroes in anime and manga Toei Animation television Transforming heroes TV Asahi original programming