News
Final Gifū Dōdō!! Naoe Kanetsugu Manga Arc to Start
posted on by Karen Ressler
The May issue of Comic Zenon, which will ship on March 24, will include the first chapter of Gifū Dōdō!! Naoe Kanetsugu -Maeda Keiji Hana-gatari, the final series in Tetsuo Hara and Nobuhiko Horie's story about samurai Maeda Keiji. Masato Deguchi will draw the series.
Hara (Fist of the North Star) first created the 1990-1993 manga Hana no Keiji -Kumo no Kanata ni- to adapt Keiichirō Ryū's novel about the samurai, Maeda Keiji. (Historical Japanese names are listed family name first here, while modern names are listed family name last.)
Hara and magazine editor Horie then brought in manga artist Yūji Takemura to launch the spin-off Gifū Dōdō!! Naoe Kanetsugu -Maeda Keiji Tsuki-gatari- manga in Shinchosha's Weekly Comic Bunch magazine in 2008. According to Hara, he felt he did not delve far enough into the life of Maeda's close friend Naoe in the earlier manga. However, Weekly Comic Bunch folded in 2010 after Shinchosha had published nine compiled volumes.
As a result, Horie launched Comic Zenon in 2010. The three creators launched the Gifū Dōdō!! Naoe Kanetsugu -Maeda Keiji Sake-gatari- manga in Comic Zenon's inaugural issue. The series will end after the 10th compiled volume, which will ship this spring.
The sequel manga inspired the Gifū Dōdō!! Kanetsugu to Keiji television anime series, which debuted in Japan last summer. Crunchyroll streamed the 26-episode series as it aired.
Image (C) North Stars Pictures, Inc.
