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Elex Media Licenses Hiroshi Fujimoto's Pajama Man Manga
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Indonesian publisher Elex Media Komputindo announced on Sunday that it has licensed Hiroshi Fujimoto's Pajama Man manga. The release will also collect all chapters of Fujimoto's Captain Bon manga, and his "Tondekoi Yōchien Bus" one-shot manga. The company will release the manga collection on June 8.
Pajama Man centers on Tatsuo Yamada, a boy who has just moved into town. He befriends his neighbor, Emi Kawada, who has similarly just moved in. At the same night that they moved in, they discover a rocket buried underground that contains a pajamas that turn them superhuman when they wear them. Now as Pajama Man and Negli-chan, they fight as heroes.
Fujimoto serialized the series in Kodansha's TV Magazine from 1973 to 1974. The plot of the manga comes from a theme song of the Mama to Asobō! Pin Pon Pan children's variety show titled "Pajama Man no Uta." Yū Aku, the song's writer, is credited for the manga's original concept.
Captain Bon focuses on the titular character, a superhero boy who constantly saves his childlike father, the genius Professor Maruyama. Captain Bon thwarts evildoers armed with the helmet his father invented, the fur-covered robot Mook, as well as HUMMING BIRD (a robot that launches from his helmet), and the robot Nyorobo.
Fujimoto serialized all five chapters of the manga in Shogakukan's TV-kun magazine in 1976.
"Tondekoi Yōchien Bus" centers on a little girl named Tomo-chan. When 9:00 a.m. comes, Tomo-chan's older brother goes to the kindergarten, and she stays, jealous of him. A mysterious kindergarten bus then comes, and takes her to a kindergarten in the sky.
Fujimoto published the one-shot manga in Kodansha's Otomodachi magazine in 1975.
Fujimoto, whose author pseudonym is Fujiko F. Fujio, is perhaps better known as the other half of the duo that created the iconic Doraemon manga. He created the manga alongside Motoo Abiko, and they worked under the pseudonym of Fujiko Fujio. When the duo split up, Abiko took the pseudonym Fujiko Fujio (A), and Fujimoto took the pseudonym Fujiko Fujio (F), later renamed to Fujiko F. Fujio. He passed away in 1996. Shogakukan reissued Pajama Man, Captain Bon, and "Tondekoi Yōchien Bus" as part of its "The Complete Works of Fujiko F. Fujio" line in 2010. Elex Media is also publishing Fujimoto's Jungle Kurobe and Mira・cle 1 manga on June 1.
