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 ...

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 the

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 ...

manga magazine ''

Weekly Shōnen Sunday is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga magazine published in Japan by Shogakukan since March 1959. Contrary to its title, ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' issues are released on Wednesdays. ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' has sold over 1.8billion copies since 1986, ...

'' from 1983 to 1985. ''Honō no Tenkōsei'' was adapted into a two-episode

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 ...

(OVA)

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 ...

series in 1991 by

Gainax Gainax Co., Ltd. (stylized as GAINAX; ja, 株式会社ガイナックス, Hepburn: ) is a Japanese anime studio famous for productions such as '' Neon Genesis Evangelion'', '' Royal Space Force'', '' Gunbuster'', '' Nadia: The Secret of Blue Wa ...

. A

live-action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ...

series, titled ''Blazing Transfer Students'', premiered on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

in 2017.

Plot

Noboru Takizawa transfers to a school where all disputes are settled through fighting. He quickly runs afoul of the school

bully Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an i ...

, Saburō Ibuki, who has a boxing match with "God's Hall Monitor", Kōichi Jōnouchi, to determine who will date the lovely Yukari. Takizawa is enraptured with Yukari, and decides to intervene in the fight which Ibuki won by bending the rules. Takizawa loses the fight in the first OVA to Ibuki's deadly finishing punch, but in the second OVA Takizawa develops his own finishing punch and eventually wins the day.

Characters

; : ; : ; : ; : ; : (credited as Schoolboy A) ; : (credited as Schoolboy C)

Media

Manga

''Honō no Tenkōsei'', written and illustrated by

, was serialized in the

magazine ''

'' from July 20, 1983, to November 13, 1985. The individual chapters were collected in twelve ''

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, released from February 18, 1984 to January 18, 1986.

OVA

''Honō no Tenkōsei'' was adapted into a two-episode

(OVA)

produced by

. The anime reunites director

Katsuhiko Nishijima is a Japanese animator, storyboard artist, and director known for panty- fanservice. Films *'' Project A-ko'' (1986), director *'' Project A-ko: Grey Side/Blue Side'' (1990), director *'' Honō no Tenkōsei'' (1991), Director, Animation Directo ...

and character designer

Yuji Moriyama is an anime character designer, animator, animation supervisor and director. He is a member of the Japanese Animation Creators Association and a winner of the 4th Japan Animation Awards in the Animation Director category. Career Moriyama started ...

of the original '' Project A-ko'' and features storyboards by Sumio Watanabe. The OVA features an opening vocal theme written by Shimamoto Kazuhiko, arranged by Kohei Tanaka, and performed by

Toshihiko Seki is a Japanese actor, voice actor, singer and narrator. In June 2004, Seki was honored by the readers of Animage Magazine in the 26th Annual Reader's Poll, where he was ranked the 9th favorite voice actor, largely in recognition of his performan ...

. The ending theme, , was composed and arranged by Tanaka and performed by

Noriko Hidaka , better known by the stage name of , is a Japanese actress, voice actress, singer and narrator. She played Minami Asakura in ''Touch'', Akane Tendo in '' Ranma ½'', Satsuki Kusakabe in '' My Neighbor Totoro'', Near in '' Death Note'', Jean Roq ...

. The ''Honō no Tenkōsei'' OVA parodies anime of the 1970s, particularly ''

Tomorrow's 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 ...

'', and is complete with intentionally jerky animation, dirty-looking cels, thick black lines, and retro character designs, much like Shimamoto's drawing style. According to Chris Beveridge of The Fandom Post ''Honō no Tenkōsei'' was released on both VHS and laserdisc, but not DVD. It was released on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese mass media publishing company founded on October 1, 1966. The company publishes mainly physical home media on compact discs, including music, films and TV shows and video games. It is affi ...

on March 19, 2014.

Live-action series

original live-action series called ''Blazing Transfer Students'' or ''Honō no Tenkōsei REBORN'' was released as a sequel set years after the original story. The story revolves around seven students all named Kakeru who transfer into the school. It was released on November 10, 2017 and was directed by Toshio Lee.

Reception

As of March 2017, the manga had over 1.6 million copies in circulation.

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 ...

's Justin Sevakis, commenting on the anime, said that "while the animation has that slightly soft shot-on-film look, the heightened contrast and angular designs that were meant to evoke the past have instead kept it looking modern."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hono no Tenkosei 1991 anime OVAs Gainax Japanese-language Netflix original programming Kazuhiko Shimamoto Parody anime and manga Pony Canyon Shogakukan franchises Shogakukan manga Shōnen manga Sports anime and manga