Bari Bari Densetsu

Bari Bari Densetsu (バリバリ伝説) is a Japanese motorbike racing-themed manga series written and illustrated by Shuichi Shigeno. It was serialized in Kodansha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Magazine from 1983 to 1991, with its chapters collected in 38 tankōbon volumes.

Earlier parts of the story focus both on high school life as well as street racing. At first the characters are illegal street racers (Japanese: hashiriya) that race on public roads, particularly on the winding mountain roads known as tōge. Those kind of racers were called "rolling-zoku", a type of bōsōzoku, and were seen as a social problem in Japan. Later parts of the story revolve around professional motorcycle racing events held on road circuits like the All Japan Road Race Championship.

Characters

 * Gun Koma (巨摩 郡)
 * A motorcycle racer. He rides a Honda CB750 as well as a Suzuki GSX-R.
 * A motorcycle racer. He rides a Honda CB750 as well as a Suzuki GSX-R.


 * Ai Itou (伊藤 歩惟)
 * Gun's girlfriend.
 * Gun's girlfriend.


 * Hideyoshi Hijiri (聖 秀吉)
 * Gun's friendly rival. He rides a Suzuki Katana.
 * Gun's friendly rival. He rides a Suzuki Katana.


 * Hiro Okita (沖田 比呂)
 * Gun's best friend. He rides a Kawasaki Z400GP.
 * Gun's best friend. He rides a Kawasaki Z400GP.


 * Miyuki Ichinose (一ノ瀬 美由紀)
 * The daughter of the Ichinose Racing Team president. She is in love with Hiro. Miyuki rides a Honda VT250F.
 * The daughter of the Ichinose Racing Team president. She is in love with Hiro. Miyuki rides a Honda VT250F.


 * Tomoyo Hijiri (聖 知代)
 * Hideyoshi's sister. She lost her parents in car accident.
 * Hideyoshi's sister. She lost her parents in car accident.

Manga
Written and illustrated by Shuichi Shigeno, Bari Bari Densetsu was serialized in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine from March 9, 1983, to July 17, 1991. Kodansha collected its chapters in thirty-eight tankōbon volumes, released from October 14, 1983, to August 6, 1991.

OVA
A two-episode original video animation (OVA) adaptation produced by Pierrot, Part I: Tsukuba and Part II: Suzuka, was released in 1986. The episodes were later re-edited and released in theaters in August 1987 by Nippon Herald (now part of Kadokawa Pictures).

A Blu-Ray version was released in Japan on July 21, 2023.

Video games
Two video games were released:
 * Bari Bari Densetsu - FM-7 (1985)
 * Bari Bari Densetsu - TurboGrafx-16 (1989)

Gun Koma also appears as a guest character in Namco's MotoGP (2000) video game, based on the 1999 season.

Reception
In 1985, it won the ninth Kodansha Manga Award for the shōnen category. As of April 2018, collected tankōbon volumes of the Bari Bari Densetsu manga series had over 26 million copies in circulation.