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 ...

manga series written and illustrated by

Kazuhiko Shimamoto is a Japanese manga artist. He attended college at the Osaka University of Arts in the fine arts department. While in college in February 1982, he debuted in the spring special issue of Shōnen Sunday with Hissatsu no Tenkōsei. At this point h ...

. It was serialized in

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, comics ( manga), non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the H ...

's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''

Weekly Young Sunday was a weekly manga magazine published by Shogakukan in Japan since the first issue on March 27, 1987. It replaced '' Shōnen Big Comic'' in Shogakukan's lineup of shōnen titles, and many of the titles in ''Shōnen Big Comic'' were continued in ...

'' 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 ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''

Monthly Shōnen Sunday , alternately known as , is a monthly '' shōnen'' manga magazine published in Japan by Shogakukan since May 12, 2009 (the June 2009 issue). The magazine was announced in February 2009, with Hayashi Masato, at that time editor of ''Weekly Shōnen ...

'' in May 2009. ''Aoi Honō'' is a fictionalized account of Shimamoto's time as a student at the

Osaka University of Arts is a private arts university located in Kanan, Minamikawachi District, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. The university was founded in 1945 as , changing its name to in 1957, and then to in 1964. The university adopted the current name in 1966. Notab ...

, which he attended alongside

Hideaki Anno is a Japanese animator, filmmaker and actor. He is best known for creating the anime series ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' (1995)''.'' His style is defined by his postmodernist approach and the extensive portrayal of characters' thoughts and emotio ...

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), '' Magi ...

, and

Takami Akai is an illustrator, game creator, character designer and animator born on November 21, 1961 in Yonago, Tottori Prefecture, Japan. Career history Akai attended Osaka University of Arts majoring in fine art . While studying there, Akai created t ...

. It was adapted into a live-action

Japanese television drama , also called , are television programs that are a staple of Japanese television and are broadcast daily. All major TV networks in Japan produce a variety of drama series including romance, comedy, detective stories, horror, jidaigeki, thrill ...

, titled ''Blue Fire'' in English, that aired from July to October 2014. The drama was streamed on Viki with English subtitles.

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 is a Japanese actor. He is known for the Japanese voice of Aladdin in the 2019 live action remake Career Nakamura made his debut in the film '' The Innocent Seven'' in 2005. Filmography Film Television Japanese dub Awards References ...

–

Mizuki Yamamoto is a Japanese actress and model. Biography Yamamoto was born in Fukuoka Prefecture. She started her career as an exclusive model for the women's fashion magazine CanCam in 2009. Two years later, she made her acting debut in the Fuji TV drama ' ...

– Tonko Morinaga * Yuina Kuroshima – Hiromi Tsuda * Kaname Endō –

Masahiko Minami is a Japanese anime producer and president of Bones. Career A graduate of the Osaka University of Arts's department of arts, Minami began his career with noted anime studio Sunrise as one of its producers. Later, in 1998, he co-founded Bones ...

* 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 Kazuh ...

* Kenji Urai – Kentarō Yano *

Yui Ichikawa , is an actress and model from Tokyo, Japan. She is also known by her nickname, ''Yui-nyan''. As an actress she has appeared in several dramas (''doramas''), and in recent years she has concentrated more on her film career. She played a minor ...

– Jun Iwase *

Haruna Kojima is a Japanese actress, model, and former singer. From 2005 to 2017, she was a member of idol group AKB48 under Team A. Career Kojima was born in Urawa-ku, Saitama, Saitama Prefecture, and started her career as a member of Angel Eyes, an idol ...

– 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, Takahashi is one of Japan's best-known and wealthiest manga artists. Her works are popular worldwide, where they have ...

– Osamu Tezuka

Voice

Tōru Furuya is a Japanese actor, voice 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. Furuya is most known for the anime roles of Amu ...

– Narrator and Katsuya Niimi (''

Nine 9 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 9 or nine may also refer to: Dates * AD 9, the ninth year of the AD era * 9 BC, the ninth year before the AD era * 9, numerical symbol for the month of September Places * Nine, Portugal, a parish in the ...

'') *

Hiromi Tsuru was a Japanese actress, voice 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 B ...

– Yuri Nakao (''Nine'') *

Makio Inoue Makio may refer to: * Makio, grind used in Aggressive Inline Skating * ''MakiO'', the yearbook of Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, ...

–

Captain Harlock is a fictional character and protagonist of the '' Space Pirate Captain Harlock'' manga series created by Leiji Matsumoto. Harlock is the archetypical Romantic hero, a space pirate with an individualist philosophy of life. He is as noble as ...

(''

Space Pirate Captain Harlock is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Leiji Matsumoto. It was serialized in ''Play Comic'' from 1977 to 1979, with the chapters collected into five ''tankōbon'' volumes by Akita Shoten. The series follows the titular Capt ...

'') *

Masako Nozawa is a Japanese actress, voice actress and narrator. Throughout her life, she has been affiliated with Production Baobab, 81 Produce and self-owned Office Nozawa; she is also affiliated with Aoni Production. Her late husband, Masaaki Tsukada, wa ...

– 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 is a Japanese actress, voice actress and narrator from Tokyo, Japan. She is most known for the roles of Reika "Ochoufujin" Ryuuzaki in ''Aim for the Ace!'', Nodoka Saotome in ''Ranma ½'', Maetel in ''Galaxy Express 999'', Michiko in ''Harmaged ...

– Maetel (''Galaxy Express 999'') * – Joe Yabuki (''

Ashita no Joe is a Japanese boxing manga series written by Asao Takamori (a pen name of Japanese author and manga writer Ikki Kajiwara, and one that's a variation on his real name) and illustrated by Tetsuya Chiba. The story follows a young man named ...

'') * – Yōko Shiraki (''Ashita no Joe'') * Kōichi Yamadera – 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 first ''Yamato'' movie. Character commentary In the se ...

and (''

Space Battleship Yamato is a Japanese science fiction anime series produced and 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 ...

'') *

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 '' Pocket Monsters'' *Dalida Lolaha Chandra II in '' Mobil ...

– Masato Wakamatsu ('' Miyuki'') *

Ryōtarō Okiayu is a Japanese actor and voice actor affiliated with Aoni Production. His major roles include Treize Khushrenada in '' Mobile Suit Gundam Wing'', Hisashi Mitsui in ''Slam Dunk'', Meisuke Nueno in ''Hell Teacher Nūbē'', Kunimitsu Tezuka in '' ...

– Jun Kenzaki (''

Ring ni Kakero is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masami Kurumada. It was published in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' between January 1977 and October 1981. The individual chapters were compiled by Shueisha into twenty-five ''tankōbon'' volume ...

'') * Kappei Yamaguchi – Nobotta Ōyama (''Otoko Oidon'')

Media

Manga

''Aoi Honō'' is written and illustrated by

. The manga debuted in

's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''

'' 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 va ...

'' special supplementary issue ''YS Special'' in October 2008. The series was then transferred to the brand new ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''

'' on May 12, 2009. Shogakukan has collected its chapters into individual ''

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. The first volume was released on February 5, 2008. As of March 11, 2022, twenty-six volumes have been released.

Volume list

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 comics award recognizing achievement in manga. It is awarded annually to a manga series published in the previous calendar year of eight or fewer collected volumes in length. The Manga Taishō was founded with the aim of re ...

, 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 is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Ai Kozaki. It revolves around the life of a timid girl who joins a naginata club to improve herself. It was serialized in Shogakukan's ''Big Comic Spirits'' magazine from January 2011 to S ...

'', it won the 60th

Shogakukan Manga Award The is one of Japan's major manga awards, and is sponsored by Shogakukan Publishing. It has been awarded annually for serialized manga and features candidates from a number of publishers. It is the oldest manga award in Japan, being given since ...

in the General category. In February 2015, ''

Asahi Shimbun is one of the four largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition a ...

'' announced that ''Aoi Honō'' was one of nine nominees for the nineteenth annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize.

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aoi Hono 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