Birdy the Mighty

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Birdy the Mighty
鉄腕バーディー
(Tetsuwan Birdy)
Genre Comedy, SciFi
Manga: Birdy the Mighty (original)
Author Masami Yuki
Publisher Flag of Japan Shogakukan
Demographic Shōnen
Serialized in Shōnen Sunday Super
Original run 1985 – 1988
Volumes 1
Manga: Birdy the Mighty (remake)
Author Masami Yuki
Publisher Flag of Japan Shogakukan
Demographic Seinen
Serialized in Weekly Young Sunday
Original run 2003 – ongoing
Volumes 18
OVA
Director Yoshiaki Kawajiri
Studio Flag of Japan Madhouse
Licensor Flag of the United States U.S. Manga Corps
Episodes 4
Released July 25, 1996
Runtime 30 minutes
TV anime: Tetsuwan Birdy Decode
Director Kazuki Akane
Studio Flag of Japan A-1 Pictures
Episodes 13

Birdy the Mighty (鉄腕バーディー Tetsuwan Bādī?) is manga by Masami Yuki, who is best known for producing the long-running series Patlabor. His initial work on the series was quickly abandoned, but it was made into an anime, which was produced and, on the last episode, scripted by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, who is known for anime titles such as Vampire Hunter D, and Ninja Scroll. The character designer and animation director for the series was Kumiko Takahashi. In 2003, Masami Yuki began serializing a second, more ambitious Birdy the Mighty manga serialized in Weekly Young Sunday, which will again be made into an anime[1].

A thirteen episode television anime version of Birdy the Mighty is scheduled to air in Japan in summer 2008, directed by Kazuki Akane with character designs by Ryochimo.[2] This version is to be known as Birdy the Mighty Decode, and will feature different seiyū from the original OVAs.[3]

Contents

[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 but impulsive, 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 Hiyamiya
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 Shōnen Sunday Super, but when Masami Yuki began serializing Kyūkyoku Chōjin R in the pages of Shōnen Sunday it began appearing infrequently, and was eventually abandoned. Only one volume was ever collected. In 2003, after a number of other series for Shōnen Sunday, Masami Yuki moved to Weekly Young Sunday, a seinen magazine, and began drawing a remake version, starting the story from the beginning.

[edit] Notes and References

  1. ^ Yuki Masami's website
  2. ^ Official Birdy the Mighty Site (Japanese)
  3. ^ New Birdy's Title Revealed: Birdy the Mighty Decode.

[edit] External links

Languages