| Kekko Kamen | |
Kekko Kamen #1 (2008) published by D/visual |
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| けっこう仮面 (Kekkō Kamen) |
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|---|---|
| Genre | Comedy, erotic |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Go Nagai |
| Published by | Shueisha |
| Demographic | Shōnen |
| Magazine | Monthly Shōnen Jump |
| Original run | September 1974 – February 1978 |
| Volumes | 5 |
| Original video animation | |
| Directed by | Nobuhiro Kondo (ep. 1) Kinji Yoshimoto (ep. 2) |
| Written by | Masashi Sogo |
| Music by | Keiju Ishikawa |
| Studio | Nippon Columbia Studio Signal Dynamic Planning |
| Licensed by | ADV Films |
| Released | August 1, 1991 – March 1, 1992 |
| Runtime | 44 minutes |
| Episodes | 2 |
| Live-action film | |
| Directed by | Hikari Hayakawa |
| Produced by | Naokatsu Ito Ken Urasaki |
| Written by | Hikari Hayakawa |
| Studio | Japan Home Video |
| Released | March 22, 1991 |
| Runtime | 60 minutes |
| Light novel | |
| Shosetsu Kekko Kamen | |
| Written by | Masashi Sogo |
| Illustrated by | Go Nagai |
| Published by | Asahi Sonorama |
| Imprint | Sonorama Bunko |
| Published | May 1991 |
| Live-action film | |
| Kekko Kamen 2: We'll be back... | |
| Directed by | Yutaka Akiyama |
| Produced by | Naokatsu Ito |
| Written by | Yutaka Akiyama |
| Music by | Masaya Abe |
| Studio | Japan Home Video |
| Released | March 27, 1992 |
| Runtime | 80 minutes |
| Live-action film | |
| Kekko Kamen 3 | |
| Directed by | Yutaka Akiyama |
| Produced by | Naokatsu Ito Toji Kato Gunya Sachimori |
| Written by | Yutaka Akiyama |
| Music by | Masaya Abe |
| Studio | Japan Home Video |
| Released | April 23, 1993 |
| Runtime | 95 minutes |
| Manga | |
| Kekko Kamen P | |
| Written by | Go Nagai (original work) Shigemitsu Harada |
| Illustrated by | Seiju Minato |
| Published by | Kodansha |
| Demographic | Seinen |
| Magazine | Weekly Young Magazine |
| Original run | 2003 – 2004 |
| Volumes | 2 |
| Live-action film | |
| Directed by | Takafumi Nagamine |
| Produced by | Shin Yoneyama Shigeyuki Fukushima (associate producer) Junichi Matsushita (executive producer) |
| Written by | Yuki Okano |
| Music by | Mari Shimizu |
| Studio | Art Port |
| Licensed by | Media Blasters |
| Released | February 6, 2004 |
| Runtime | 70 minutes |
| Live-action film | |
| Kekko Kamen: Mangriffon no Gyakushu | |
| Directed by | Takafumi Nagamine |
| Produced by | Shin Yoneyama Shigeyuki Fukushima Junichi Matsushita |
| Written by | Yuki Okano Keiichi Sakano |
| Music by | Mari Shimizu |
| Studio | Art Port |
| Licensed by | Media Blasters |
| Released | July 23, 2004 |
| Runtime | 70 minutes |
| Live-action film | |
| Kekko Kamen Returns | |
| Directed by | Takafumi Nagamine |
| Produced by | Shin Yoneyama Shigeyuki Fukushima Junichi Matsushita |
| Written by | Yuki Okano |
| Music by | Mari Shimizu |
| Studio | Art Port |
| Licensed by | Media Blasters |
| Released | October 31, 2004 |
| Runtime | 70 minutes |
| Live-action film | |
| Kekko Kamen Surprise | |
| Directed by | Takafumi Nagamine |
| Produced by | Shin Yoneyama Shigeyuki Fukushima Junichi Matsushita |
| Written by | Yuki Okano |
| Music by | Mari Shimizu |
| Studio | Art Port |
| Licensed by | Media Blasters |
| Released | October 31, 2004 |
| Runtime | 70 minutes |
| Live-action film | |
| Kekko Kamen Royale | |
| Directed by | Kosuke Suzuki |
| Produced by | Junichi Matsushita |
| Written by | Rui Tsubota |
| Music by | Koji Endo |
| Studio | Art Port |
| Released | May 25, 2007 |
| Runtime | 70 minutes |
| Live-action film | |
| Kekko Kamen Premium | |
| Directed by | Kosuke Suzuki |
| Produced by | Junichi Matsushita |
| Written by | Rui Tsubota |
| Music by | Koji Endo |
| Studio | Art Port |
| Released | June 22, 2007 |
| Runtime | 72 minutes |
| Live-action film | |
| Kekko Kamen Forever | |
| Directed by | Kosuke Suzuki |
| Produced by | Junichi Matsushita |
| Written by | Rui Tsubota |
| Music by | Koji Endo |
| Studio | Art Port |
| Released | July 27, 2007 |
| Runtime | 70 minutes |
Kekko Kamen (けっこう仮面 Kekkō Kamen, sometimes romanized as Kekkou Kamen, Kekko Masked, Mask of Kekkou or Mask the Kekkou, and translated as Splendid Mask) is originally a shōnen manga series from Japanese creator Go Nagai, which spawned an OVA series and several live-action films. The manga series is about the misadventures of a student named Mayumi Takahashi who attends a boarding school called Toenail of Satan's Spartan Institute of Higher Education that is run by sexual predators. The teachers are constantly looking for ways to torture or humiliate the students, and from this the teachers derive sexual satisfaction. Takahashi's only protection is from a mysterious figure known as Kekko Kamen.
The main character lurks around a corrupt, misogynistic "high education" high school called the Sparta Academy (スパルタ学園 suparuta gakuen), where the penalty for any student (usually girls) making the slightest mistake is being sexually humiliated by the perverted teachers running the school, the mastermind being a demonic, jester-like villain named "Toenail of Satan". Before the teachers take their sexual advances too far, Kekko Kamen breaks in and beats up the bad guy before performing a finishing attack by jumping into the air and landing crotch-first onto the opponent's face. In the anime, the impact causes him to lose consciousness. Sprawled unconscious on the floor, the villain usually has a smile on his face. In the manga, Kekko Kamen's often kills the villains with her crotch attack or with a hit with her nunchaku.
A mostly nude female superhero dressed only in a red, rabbit eared mask, with matching gloves, scarf, and boots. She uses her body to distract the usually male enemy teacher that she fights in order to protect the young student Mayumi Takahashi. She fights with a graceful and acrobatic martial arts style, as well as often using weapons to aid her, such as nunchaku and a bo staff. Kekko Kamen's finishing move, the Pubic Hair Jump (おっぴろげジャンプ - Oh Piroge Jump) , involves her leaping into the air and spreading her legs, distracting her enemy with her groin, and crashing into his face. The impact and distraction causes him to lose consciousness. Despite many young women being suspected of being the heroine, her true identity has never been revealed.
A young, first year student at the Sparta Academy. Mayumi is an innocent and good natured, yet somewhat dimwitted girl, whose bad grades often land her in the school's torture chamber, where she is subjected to humiliating punishments. However, before the teachers are about to completely violate her, Kekko Kamen always manages to burst in and save the day. Her hero's constant rescuing of her has filled Mayumi with a deep amount of affection for her, and she often wonders whom the masked heroine could really be.
The main villain, the wicked principal of the Academy, who dresses in a fearsome white demon mask and jester hood. He is extremely perverted and obtains satisfaction from sexually humiliating the female student body, especially Mayumi Takahashi. This often brings him into conflict with Kekko Kamen, whose secret identity he wishes to uncover. To accomplish this, he brings out various punishment councillors to publicly humiliate Takahashi, using her as bait to bring the naked warrior of justice out in the open. However, he always manages to be defeated by her.
A shy, introverted second year student. After Mayumi sees her bare body during a plan to catch Kekko Kamen, she believes that this girl is in fact her hero. However, what Mayumi and the rest of the school doesn't know Chigusa is actually hiding a different secret: she is actually a pair of twins named Chigusa and Yuka, who mysteriously enrolled in the school under the identity of one student.
The tough, masculine Physical Education teacher who is an expert at various styles of fighting techniques, sports, and with many types of weapons. For this reason, the principal suspected that she was actually Kekko Kamen, and began to humiliate her. This theory was disregarded when Kekko Kamen jumped in to rescue her.
A supposedly first year male student, who is in the same class as Mayumi. However, another student uncovered that he was actually a female in disguise. This prompted the Principal to believe that she was Kekko Kamen. When her true gender was unveiled, Keiko suddenly rushed in to save her, and confessed that she was Koichi's older sister. Both sisters were then captured and tortured until Kekko Kamen came to their rescue. After this revelation, Koichi continues to be a valuable friend and ally to Mayumi.
A young student who is positively infatuated with Kekko Kamen, and is inspired to become a heroine of justice herself. So, armed with a rapier, she becomes the mostly nude, caped, swashbuckling hero with a ribbon covering her crotch known as Ribbon no Shishi (リボンの獅子). However, on her first attempt to combat the evil of the school, Ai finds herself in danger. Fortunately, Kekko Kamen comes to her rescue. After this incident, Ai continued to appear sporadically throughout the manga as a supporting character.
The very attractive school nurse. After Kekko Kamen's thigh is injured in a battle, the villain traces her to the infirmary, and confronts Kaori, ripping off her clothing in an attempt to find the scar, only to realize it wasn't there. Kekko then appeared with a bandage on and rescued her.
A red-haired, chain smoking, tough as nails third year student and gang leader. But beneath her brash exterior, she may be concealing something.
Kekko Kamen is a female superhero whose costume consists solely of red boots, gloves, scarf and a mask with long bunny-like ears. Her fighting style is graceful, and her finishing move involves driving the opponent to the ground with a flying headscissors takedown which presses her groin into the victim's face. While regularly considered as a hentai series, it doesn't have many explicit sexual situations, neither in the manga, anime or live-action series, though there is abundant female nudity in all of them.
Kekko Kamen is a parody of Gekko Kamen. It was originally a joke that Nagai sent to his editor expecting him to reject it. His editor, however, loved the idea and that started Kekko Kamen.[1] As well as the similarity in name, both Kekko Kamen's and Gekko Kamen's true identity is never revealed. Even the name of the main antagonist is a parody: in Gekko Kamen it's Claw of Satan (サタンの爪 Satan no Tsume) while in Kekko Kamen it's Toenail of Satan (サタンの足の爪 Satan no Ashi no Tsume).
Ten live-action films have been made of Kekko Kamen, along with one OVA series. A photobook has also been made, featuring a martial artist as Kekko Kamen. A sequel photobook featuring Kekko Kamen's daughter, Kurenai Kamen, has also been made.
The theme song for Kekko Kamen (used in anime and tokusatsu adaptations as well as the original manga) uses the same lyrics for the theme song to Moonlight Mask, but with changes.
Kekko Kamen was originally serialized in Shueisha's magazine Monthly Shōnen Jump, from September 1974 to February 1978.[2][3][4][5]
The series has been compiled several times by Shueisha and other publishers.[6]
| Vol. | Release date | ISBN |
| 1 | April 30, 1976 | 978-4088526515 |
| 2 | January 31, 1977 | 978-4088526522 |
| 3 | July 31, 1977 | 978-4088526539 |
| 4 | January 31, 1978 | 978-4088526546 |
| 5 | July 31, 1978 | 978-4088526553 |
| Vol. | Release date | ISBN |
| 1 | August 15, 1990 | 978-4088583358 |
| 2 | October 15, 1990 | 978-4088583365 |
| 3 | December 9, 1990 | 978-4088583372 |
| Vol. | Release date | ISBN |
| 1 | April 25, 1996 | 978-4041978016 |
| 2 | April 25, 1996 | 978-4041978023 |
| 3 | April 25, 1996 | 978-4041978030 |
| Vol. | Release date | ISBN |
| 1 | July 4, 2003 | 978-4063347449 |
| Vol. | Release date | ISBN |
| 1 | April 27, 2004 | 978-4845828067 |
| 2 | October 21, 2004 | 978-4845828173 |
The series is also available in ebook format, published by ebookjapan.[7]
The manga is being published in Italy by d/visual.
| Vol. | Release date | ISBN |
| 1 | December 22, 2006 | 978-4862370808 |
| 2 | July 30, 2010 | 978-4862370815 |
| # | Title | Original release date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Here I am: The messenger of love and justice!! / Crash!! Kekko Kamen vs Muscular Monster" "ai to seigi no shisha sanjō!! / kekitotsu!! kekkō kamen vs kinniku monster" (愛と正義の使者参上!! / 激突!!けっこう仮面VS筋肉モンスター) |
August 1, 1991 |
| 2 | "Mystery! The legend of the evil android!! / Crisis! Kekko Kamen only lives twice!!" "kaiki! akuma no jinzōningen densetsu!! / kiki ippatsu! kekkō kamen wa nido shinu!!" (怪奇!悪魔の人造人間伝説!! / 危機一発!けっこう仮面は二度死ぬ!!) |
March 1, 1992 |
The OVA series was initially released by Nippon Columbia in VHS format.[8][11]
| # | Release date | Standard number | JAN |
| 1 | August 1, 1991 | COVM-5024 | 4988001134466 |
| 2 | March 1, 1992 | COVM-5089 | 4988001148463 |
It was released in DVD also by Columbia.[8][12][13]
| # | Release date | Standard number | JAN |
| 1 | April 21, 2001 | COBM-5126 | 4988001939900 |
| 2 | April 21, 2001 | COBM-5127 | 4988001940005 |
The OVA was released in the US subtitled in English in VHS format by ADV Films.[14][15] [16][17]
| # | Release date | Catalog number | UPC |
| 1 | February 7, 1995 | VHSKK-001 | 702727002533 |
| 2 | April 4, 1995 | VHSKK-002 | 702727002731 |
ADV films also released the OVA in a single DVD which, beside the subtitles, also included dubbed audio.[18] This version has also been re-released in bundled packages with other anime.[19][20]
| Name | Release date | UPC |
| Kekko Kamen | February 15, 2005 | 702727114427 |
| Cutey Honey/Kekko Kamen | April 1, 2008 | 702727195426 |
| Puni Puni Poemy/Kekko Kamen | April 21, 2009 | 702727193323 |
The OVA was also released in a dubbed version in Italy in VHS by Dynamic Italia in 2000 under the name Kekko Kamen: La maschera libidinosa.[21][22]
There have been ten live-action films dedicated to Kekko Kamen. Go Nagai has been intricately involved in the production of the films.
The titles and order of the ten live-action Kekko Kamen films are as follows:
Note that in both 1991 and 2004 films were produced under the simple title Kekko Kamen. In the West, the 2004 film is often differentiated from the original by the title Kekko Kamen New!. The first three and the last three films were released in direct-to-video format, while the four films of 2004 were theatrically released in Japan.
The role of Kekko Kamen is credited as ?, to keep it as a secret as in the series. However, it is known that it was played by actress Chris Aoki.[23]
The role of Kekko Kamen is credited as ?, but it is known that it was played by actress Chris Aoki.
The role of Kekko Kamen is credited as ?, but it is known that it was played by actress Chris Aoki.
The role of Kekko Kamen is credited as ? in the Japanese credits, but it is known that it was played by actress Shino Saito.[24]
The role of Kekko Kamen is credited as ? in the Japanese credits, but it is known that it was played by actress Shino Saito.[25][26]
The role of Kekko Kamen is credited as ? in the Japanese credits, but it is known that it was played by actress Misaki Mori (credited as Misaki).[27][28][29]
The role of Kekko Kamen is credited as ? in the Japanese credits, but it is known that it was played by actress Misaki Mori (credited as Misaki).[29][30][31]
Kekko Kamen P (けっこう仮面P kekkō kamen p) is manga written by Shigemitsu Harada and drawn by Seiju Minato, originally published by Kodansha in Weekly Young Magazine from 2003 to 2004. It's a sequel of the original series, where several years have passed since the events depicted in the first manga. Momoka Nogami discovers the legend of the original Kekko Kamen and decides to emulate her actions donning a similar costume, adding a peach motif, and so she becomes Kekko Kamen Peach. Other Kekko also appear, Kekko Kamen Lemon and Kekko Kamen Melon, and even a male version called Kekko Kamen Banana.
| No. | Release date | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | May 6, 2004 | ISBN 978-4063612356 |
| 2 | July 6, 2004 | ISBN 978-4063612493 |
A special story written by Shinobu Inokuma with co-operation from Nagai,in a seinen magazine Business Jump called "The Excellent - Kekko Kamen Gaiden" THE エクセレント ～けっこう仮面外伝～ where it takes place many years after the original manga story where a new kekko kamen (similar to the original but with a different mask,a known identity and a transformation similar to any magical girl genre) whose secret idenity is a new teacher in a new high school owned by the remaining factions of the Toenail of Satan protects young female students from the evil members of the organisation unfortunately one of them caught her and held her prisoner until the original kekko kamen rescued her and they both defeated him,the original kekko kamen tells her successor that some of the remains of the toenail of satan may have spread all over the world and that she will keep on fighting alone but she was proud of her successor that if she's gone she and her sucessors after her will always protect the young female women from evil by using her namesake.[32][33]
American heavy metal musician Rob Zombie used clips of Kekko Kamen during the 2010 Mayhem Festival tour during the song Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy).
|title= specified when using {{Cite web}}". http://www.mangaforever.net/34057/capitolo-gaiden-kekko-kamen. Retrieved 2012-01-02.|title= specified when using {{Cite web}}"]. hhttp://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2011/06/15/go-nagais-kekko-kamen-assaulting-good-sense-again. Retrieved 2012-01-02.