Shutendoji (manga)

Main characters

Jiro Shutendo (手天童子郎, shutendou jirō)

Voiced by: Ryo Horikawa

The fifteen-year-old protagonist of the story, he is an oni.

Miyuki Shiratori (白鳥美雪, shiratori miyuki)

Voiced by: Sumi Shimamoto

Jiro's schoolmate and love interest. She becomes infatuated with him after he rescues her and a schoolmate from some bullies. In terms of characterisation, she fits both the ingenue and damsel in distress archetypes, given that, throughout the narrative, she often ends up naked and captured at the hands of the manga's antagonists.

Ryuichiro Shiba (柴竜一郎, shiba ryūichirō)

Voiced by: Michihiro Ikemizu

Jiro's adoptive human father.

Kyoko Shiba (柴京子, shiba kyōko)

Voiced by: Sanae Takagi

Jiro's adoptive human mother.

Goki (護鬼, goki)

Voiced by: Tessho Genda

One of the two oni created to protect Jiro. He looks relatively humanoid, unlike most oni, and acts as a mentor for Jiro.

Senki (戦鬼, senki)

Voiced by: Daisuke Gori

One of the two oni created to protect Jiro. He brought him as a baby to his parents.

Allies

Yusuke Shiratori (白鳥勇輔, shiratori yūsuke)

Miyuki's older brother and Jiro's first and best friend.

Naojiro Oyama (大山 直次郎, oyama naojiro)

A friend of Yusuke who is a descendant of ancient oni. He's the heir of a yakuza family trained through generations to protect Jiro.

Riki Muso (無双 力, muso riki)

A human descendant of ancient oni and another friend to Yusuke. She is a strong female oni who hides under the guise of a rowdy, masculine-looking girl with a love for professional wrestling. Her nickname is "Ricki".

Kosaku Kaji (梶 工作, kaji kosaku)

Another descendant of an oni, a timid, bookish boy with psychic abilities.

Yashi Koya (小谷 椰子夫, koya yashi)

Another descendant of an oni and the last member of Yusuke's gang. He is a plump boy with superhuman strength that practises sumo wrestling. He's nicknamed "Koyatashi".

Enemies

Yonen Majari (魔邪利 妖念, majari yonen)

The high priest of Ankoku Jashin Kyo ("School of the Evil God from Darkness"), an evil cult who worships demons. His goal is killing Jiro.

Kukai Jawanbo (邪腕坊 苦海, jawanbo kukai)

Majari's lieutenant, a powerful priest who wields a double kusarigama.

Iron Kaiser (アイアンカイザー, aion kaisa)

Voiced by: Akio Ohtsuka

Kukai's son, who grew and became a military cyborg in order to avenge his father.

Prototype

Before starting serialization, Nagai created a 57-page oneshot titled Shutendoji, published in the issue of February 1975 (1975-02) in the Shōjo magazine Princess, published by Akita Shoten.^[1][2][3] While this manga has some similarities, it is a completely different story, as well as being a Shōjo manga instead of Shōnen. It would later be renamed as Jashin Senki (邪神戦記) or Princess Han Shutendoji (プリンセス版手天童子).^[2][3]

Original serialization

Shutendoji started being published as a serialized series from September 5, 1976 (1976-09-05), to April 30, 1978 (1978-04-30), in the magazine Weekly Shōnen Magazine by Kodansha.^[2][4]

The manga was originally compiled in 9 volumes, and would later be re-published several times.

• Kodansha (KC Magazine, 1977–1978)

• Kodansha (KC Special, 1985)

• Kodansha (Goka Aizoban, 1988–1989)

• Fusosha (Fusosha Bunko, 1996–1997)

• Fusosha (Legend of Shutendoji, 1998)

• Kodansha (Kodansha Manga Bunko, 2001)

Besides the printed volumes, the manga has also been published in 10 ebook format volumes by ebookjapan.^[5] The series has also been published in some compilations of other Nagai's manga.

Releases outside Japan

The OVAs were released in the US by ADV Films^[16] in VHS (4 tapes) and later on DVD (2 discs).

They were also released in Italy by Dynamic on VHS and in Latin America on TV by Locomotion.

Staff and production notes

• Distributor: Nippon Columbia
• Original work / organization: Go Nagai
• Planning work: Dynamic Planning
• Director: Junji Nishimura (1, 2), Jun Kawagoe (3), Masatomo Sudo (4)
• Scenario: Masashi Sogo
• Work supervision: Hideyuki Motohashi (1, 2)
• Animation supervisor: Satoshi Hirayama (3, 4), Masatomo Sudo (4)
• Character design: Satoshi Hirayama (3, 4)
• Mecha design: Masahiko Okura (3, 4)
• Art director: Masazumi Matsumiya (1, 2), Masuo Nakayama (3, 4)
• Director of photography: Tadashi Hosono (1, 2, 3), Akihiko Takahashi (4)
• Sound director: Akira Yamazaki
• Music: Fumitaka Anzai
• Animation work: Studio Signal
• Production: Nippon Animation
• Cast: Ryo Horikawa (Jiro Shutendo), Sumi Shimamoto (Miyuki Shiratori), Michihiro Ikemizu (Ryuichiro Shiba), Sanae Takagi (Kyoko Shiba), Rei Sakuma (Tanemura), Hiroya Ishimaru (Kitani), Tessho Genda (Goki), Daisuke Gori (Senki), Osamu Kobayashi (Yonen Majari), Shigeru Sakahara (Yusuke), Yoko Matsuoka (Rickey), Kiyoyuki Yanada (Naojiro), Kiyoshi Kawakubo (Oyama), Akio Otsuka (Iron Kaiser), Rihoko Yoshida (Captain Persis), Ryusei Nakao (Major Gill), Sakiko Tamagawa (Sonia), Chikao Otsuka (Oniryu), Koji Yada (Ishi)

Source(s)^{[11] [17][18]}