is a Japanese

manga 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 history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

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 comics, magazines, light novels, dictionaries, literature, non-fiction, home media, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but ...

manga magazine ''

Weekly Shōnen Sunday is a weekly 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, making it ...

'' 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 special episodes of a series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the ...

(OVA)

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

series in 1991 by

Gainax Gainax Co., Ltd. (stylized as GAINAX; , Hepburn: ) was a Japanese anime studio famous for original productions such as '' Neon Genesis Evangelion'', '' Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise'', '' Gunbuster'', '' Nadia: The Secret of Blue ...

. A

live-action 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 feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games or ...

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

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

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, comments, or threats, in order to abuse, aggressively dominate, or intimidate one or more others. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perc ...

, 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 A is a standard publishing format for books in Japan, alongside other formats such as ''shinsho'' (17x11 cm paperback books) and ''bunkobon''. Used as a loanword in English, the term specifically refers to a printed collection of a manga that w ...

'' 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 Director * ...

and character designer

Yuji Moriyama is a Japanese 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 ...

of the original ''

Project A-ko is a 1986 Japanese animated science fiction action comedy film. The film focuses on 16-year-old Japanese schoolgirl A-ko, who defends her best friend C-ko, as they face off against their classmate and rival B-ko while the Earth faces the threa ...

'' 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 performa ...

. 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 Roque ...

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

Tomorrow's Joe , also known as ''Ashita no Joe: Fighting for Tomorrow'', is a Japanese boxing manga series written by Asao Takamori and illustrated by Tetsuya Chiba. It follows drifter Joe Yabuki, who discovers a passion for boxing in a juvenile prison ...

'', 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 VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

and laserdisc, but not

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

. It was released on

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese company, established on October 1, 1966, which distributes music, films, home video, and video games. It is affiliated with the Japanese media group Fujisankei Communications Group. Pony Canyo ...

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 ot ...

'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

* {{Gainax 1991 anime OVAs 2017 Japanese television series debuts 2017 Japanese television series endings Boxing in anime and manga Gainax Japanese-language television shows Kazuhiko Shimamoto Netflix television dramas Parody anime and manga Pony Canyon Shogakukan franchises Shogakukan manga Shōnen manga