Akado Suzunosuke

Akado Suzunosuke (赤胴鈴之助) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichi Fukui and Tsunayoshi Takeuchi. It ran serially for six years from 1954 to 1960.

It is a jidaigeki story where a young swordsman stand up to villains. At the time, there was no other manga with such a high level of perfection, so it quickly gained support from children and became extremely popular. The popularity of the work led to the production of a radio drama in 1957, followed by a film adaptation and two TV drama adaptations in the same year, creating a huge boom. The boom subsided as the manga series ended, but an anime adaptation was produced in 1972.

Plot
Akado Suzunosuke tells the story of Suzunosuke Akado, a young boy who aspires to become the best swordsman in Japan. He joins the Chiba Dōjō, run by Shūsaku Chiba, a renowned Hokushin Ittō-ryū in Edo, where he spends his days training and trying to perfect the Akado Vacuum Slash, a special technique left by his father. Suzunosuke faces a variety of events, including a feud and reconciliation with senior disciple Rainoshin Tatsumaki, and a confrontation with the Kimento, which is plotting to overthrow the Edo Shogunate. However, Suzunosuke is undaunted by any hardships he faces, and he continues to follow his own path.

Production
Akado Suzunosuke was created by Eiichi Fukui, a popular manga artist comparable to Osamu Tezuka at the time, who remade Yowamushi Suzunosuke (よわむし鈴之助), a one-shot that he wrote in the past, for serialization. However, after the first episode was published in the magazine and the second episode was even drafted, Fukui died suddenly from overwork. So Tsunayoshi Takeuchi, a new manga artist who had just debuted the previous year, was suddenly requested to write a continuation of the manga. Takeuchi then took over Fukui's work and went on to write from the second episode to the final episode, becoming the manga's foster parent.

Characters

 * Suzunosuke Akado (赤胴 鈴之助)
 * A boy who trains at the Hokushin Ittō-ryū Chiba Dōjō to become the best swordsman in Japan. His real name is Suzunosuke Kinno, but he is called Suzunosuke Akadō because he wears a Akadō (red breastplate), a memento of his father.


 * Shūsaku Chiba (千葉 周作)
 * Founder of Hokushin Ittō-ryū. A master swordsman who founded Chiba Dōjō in Edo, Suzunosuke's master. He is modeled after a real swordsman with the same name.


 * Sayuri Chiba (千葉 さゆり)
 * Daughter of Shūsaku. She is a skilled swordsman and is good with a naginata.


 * Osuzu (お鈴)
 * A woman who makes her living as a tailor. She is actually Suzunosuke's mother.


 * Rainoshin Tatsumaki (竜巻 雷之進)
 * A disciple of Chiba Dōjō with a natural talent for swordsmanship. He was Suzunosuke's senior disciple and rival, but after losing to Suzunosuke, he became desperate and was excommunicated.


 * Oshinosuke Yokoguruma (横車 押之助)
 * Head instructor of Chiba Dōjō. He is a close friend of Suzunosuke's father.


 * Gakurinbo (岳林坊)
 * Rainoshin's elder brother. He is a spear user and a dojoyaburi. He later joins the Kimentō, but Rainoshin persuades him to change his mind.


 * Matsunosuke Ooki (大木 松之助)
 * Suzunosuke's friend. He mistakenly identifies Suzunosuke as the murderer of his father and targets him along with his uncle.


 * Banyoken Ooki (大木 蛮洋軒)
 * Matsunosuke's uncle and a master of kusarigama. He targets Suzunosuke with his nephew to avenge his younger brother's death.


 * Tetsunosuke Kinno (金野 鉄之助)
 * Suzunosuke's late father.


 * Kimento (鬼面党)
 * An evil organization that schemes to overthrow the Edo Shogunate and rule the country. All members wear the masks of demons. They plan to recruit the skilled Suzunosuke and Rainoshin into their ranks.

Manga
Akado Suzunosuke was serialized in Shōnen Gahō, a monthly shōnen manga magazine published by Shōnen Gahōsha, from the August 1954 issue to the December 1960 issue, and was collected in 22 tankōbon volumes.

It was reprinted in 2007 by Shōnen Gahōsha and Shogakukan. Shonen Gahosha faithfully reprinted the original in every detail, while Shogakukan reprinted it in A5 format, which is slightly larger than the original B6 format, for easier reading.

It was made into an Ebook in 2014 and eBookJapan began distributing it.

Anime
The anime adaptation was broadcast on Fuji Television Network from April 5, 1972 to March 28, 1973 for a total of 52 episodes. It was co-produced by Fuji Television and Tokyo Movie, with the actual production of the animation outsourced to A Production.

The anime was well composed with a total of 52 episodes, utilizing the essence of the original manga while introducing characters who do not appear in the manga and interspersing an anime original road movie-like storyline in the middle of the episodes. Each 30-minute episode was produced in just over a month with an animation director and two to four key animators, which is nearly impossible today.

Many of the staff members are from Mushi Production and Tōei Dōga, so they all have a solid foundation, and the quality of the animation is high throughout the 52 episodes, and every episode is well produced. The main staff consists of former Tōei Dōga members: Shigetsugu Yoshida as director, Daikichiro Kusube as animation director, and Yōichi Kotabe as assistant animation director. This group included many animators who would later go on to show their unique talents, such as Yoshinori Kanada and Yoshifumi Kondo. The staff working on the storyboards are all people who have done epoch-making work in Japanese animation, such as Toshio Hirata, Hayao Miyazaki, and Noboru Ishiguro. Among them, the work of Osamu Dezaki, who joined under the name Kuyo Sai, was outstanding, and he worked on 14 episodes, a quarter of the total.

Live-action films
Nine film adaptations produced by Daiei Film were released from 1957 to 1958. The lead actor was Shoji Umewaka for the first seven films, and was replaced by Taro Momoyama for the eighth and ninth films.

Filmography

 * Suzunosuke Akado (赤胴鈴之助) (released on May 21, 1957, black-and-white film)
 * Suzunosuke Akado: The Moonlight Monster (赤胴鈴之助 月夜の怪人) (Released on June 18, 1957, black-and-white film)
 * Suzunosuke Akado: Defeat the Demon-Faced Gang (赤胴鈴之助 鬼面党退治) (Released on August 13, 1957, black and white film)
 * Suzunosuke Akado: The Vacuum Slash of Asuka Style (赤胴鈴之助 飛鳥流真空斬り) (Released on August 25, 1957, black and white film)
 * Suzunosuke Akado: The Demon of the New Moon Tower (赤胴鈴之助 新月塔の妖鬼) (Released on September 21, 1957, color film)
 * Suzunosuke Akado: The One-Legged Demon (赤胴鈴之助 一本足の魔人) (Released on December 28, 1957, color film)
 * Suzunosuke Akado: The Birdman with Three Eyes (赤胴鈴之助三つ目の鳥人) (Released on March 11, 1958, color film)
 * Suzunosuke Akado: The Thunderman of the Black Cloud Valley (赤胴鈴之助黒雲谷の雷人) (Released on November 15, 1958, black and white film)
 * Suzunosuke Akado: Defeat the Skull Gang (赤胴鈴之助 どくろ団退治) (Released on December 21, 1958, black and white film)

Radio drama
Radio Drama Adaptation aired on Radio Tokyo from January 7, 1957 to February 14, 1959. Total of 42 episodes. The theme song, which would be used in subsequent film, TV dramas, and anime series, was created for the program.

Live-action TV drama series
Two TV Drama Adaptations were aired in 1957 on separate TV stations using the then-predominant live broadcast format. The Osaka Television Broadcasting version aired a total of 55 episodes from September 20, 1957 to October 3, 1958. The KR TV (Radio Tokyo Television) version aired a total of 55 episodes from October 2, 1957 to March 25, 1959.