Birdy the Mighty

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Birdy the Mighty

鉄腕バーディー (Tetsuwan Birdy)
Genre	Comedy, SciFi, Shounen
Manga: Birdy the Mighty (original)
Authored by	Masami Yuki
Publisher	Shogakukan
Serialized in	Shonen Sunday (monthly)
Original run	1985 – 1988
No. of volumes	1
Manga: Birdy the Mighty (remake)
Authored by	Masami Yuki
Publisher	Shogakukan
Serialized in	Young Sunday
Original run	2003 – Ongoing
No. of volumes	15
OVA
Directed by	Yoshiaki Kawajiri
Studio	Madhouse U.S. Manga Corp
No. of episodes	4
Released	July 25, 1996
Runtime	30 minutes

Birdy the Mighty (鉄腕バーディー, Tetsuwan Birdy^?) is an anime based on a one volume manga by Masami Yuki, who is best known for producing the long-running series Patlabor. Birdy the Mighty was produced and, on the last episode, scripted by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, who is known for anime titles such as Vampire Hunter D, Bloodlust, Wicked City, and Ninja Scroll. In 2003, Masami Yuki began serializing a second, more ambitious Birdy the Mighty manga, which will again be made into an anime^[1].

[edit] Plot

Tsutomu Senkawa is an average high school kid who is busy studying for his senior entrance exams. Tsutomu goes out for some fresh air, after a hard day's work studying for a big test, when he runs into a guy fleeing from a pretty young lady. The pursued man is actually an interplanetary criminal on the run from a Federation agent called Birdy Cephon Altera. Caught in the midst of this chase, Tsutomu gets thrown by the man at Birdy, which kills Tsutomu. Fortunately for Tsutomu, there is a way to keep him alive, although it comes at the price of discarding his body. He ends up merged into Birdy's body.

So Tsutomu is stuck sharing a body with a rather attractive, yet very strong, space police agent, while trying to keep his apathetic family and more importantly, his girlfriend, from finding out about his woman problems. In the meantime, to make matters worse, Birdy still has to do her job. Together, they take on a rather secretive group of evil aliens planning to perform maniacal experiments on the unsuspecting inhabitants of Tokyo.

[edit] Characters

Birdy Cephon Altera: Voiced by: Mitsuishi Kotono (Japanese), Alex McCord (English)

Tsutomu Senkawa: Voiced by: Iwanaga Tetsuya (Japanese), Justin Thompson (English)

Natsumi: Voiced by: Nogami Yukana (Japanese), Matty O'Shea (English)

Hazumi Senkawa: Voiced by: Maruo Tomoko (Japanese), Debbie Rabbai (English)

Gomesu/Gomez: Voiced by: Ohtsuka Akio (Japanese), Cory Carthew (English)

Christella Revi: Voiced by: Hyoudou Mako

Hikawa: Voiced by Ted Lewis

[edit] Manga

The original manga ran in what is now Monthly Sunday, but when Masami Yuki began serializing Kyūkyoku Chōjin R in the pages of Shonen Sunday it began appearing infrequently, and was eventually abandoned. Only one volume was ever collected. In 2003 Masami Yuki moved from Shonen Sunday to Young Sunday, a seinen magazine, and began drawing a remake version, starting the story from the beginning.