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Bamboo Blade Manga Gets 20th Anniversary 1-Shot

This year's 12th issue of Square Enix's Young Gangan magazine published on June 6 the first part of the two-part 20th anniversary one-shot manga of Masahiro Totsuka and Aguri Igarashi's Bamboo Blade manga. Square Enix will publish the special one-shot manga's second part in the magazine's next issue on Friday. The first part is titled "Muroe Kōkō Kendō-bu to ○-nen Ato" (Muroe High School Kendō Club and __ Years Later), and the second part is titled "Honki Kojirō to Gachi Tama" (Serious Kojirō and Earnest Tamaki).

The manga launched in Young Gangan in 2005 and ended with its 14th compiled book volume in 2010. Yen Press published the manga in English and describes the story:

Poor, in debt, and living on instant noodles, high school kendo instructor Kojiro makes a bet with an old friend on a practice meet between the all-girls' teams of their respective schools. The prize: a year's worth of free sushi! It's too good for the desperate Kojiro to pass up! But with only one active member on the kendo team, Kojiro must move quickly to put together a squad before the meet. He's got his eye on Tamaki, the daughter of a kendo master and a skilled swordswoman herself. The only trouble is...she's not interested. Kojiro's willing to try anything, but what will it take to win her over?

The manga's first spinoff series, Bamboo Blade B by Totsuka and Studio Neko, ran in Square Enix's Monthly Shonen Gangan magazine from 2009 to 2013. A second spinoff manga, Bamboo Blade C by Totsuka and Jingu Takao, launched in Square Enix's Monthly Big Gangan in 2013. BB Deformer, a four-panel spinoff comic by Totsuka and illustrator Saki Azumi, also launched in Monthly Big Gangan in 2013. Bamboo Blade C and BB Deformer both ended in 2016.

The manga also had a 26-episode television anime adaptation in 2007-2008. Funimation released the anime in North America.

Source: Young Gangan issue 12