Go! Go! Ackman

Go! Go! Ackman (ゴーゴーアックマン) is a Japanese shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama that was published irregularly by V-Jump from 1993 to 1994. It is also featured in Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater Vol. 3. Go! Go! Ackman is a humorous series about a 200-year-old demon child named Ackman who harvests souls for the Dark Devil Lord.

Overview

The manga is eleven chapters long, with each chapter being five pages long. When printed in V-Jump, all of the pages were in color. The reprinted version found in the third Toriyama Theater collection was printed in black and white.^[1] The series would receive another reprint in "Akira Toriyama Man-Kan Zenseki 1" August 8, 2008.^[2]

Story

The first chapter begins when Ackman, a short demonic child who looks similar to Trunks from Dragon Ball without a nose, wakes up after a fifty-year nap. Ackman's parents and sisters are introduced in this chapter. They have no major importance in the rest of the series. The only significant thing they do is explain to the reader that the family kills people and sells their souls to the devil. The only major character in this chapter is Godon, a red bat-winged creature that serves Ackman. His main purpose is to gather the souls of people Ackman kills in a jar.

In the third chapter, the introduction to Ackman's main nemesis, Tenshi, a Cherub type angel (who looks very similar to Kuririn). Having thought that Ackman was dead he is shocked to find him out and killing again. Tenshi tries to kill Ackman throughout the rest of the chapter but fails miserably. One example is Tenshi tries to hit Ackman with a missile, but misses and hits a school bus full of school children.

The rest of the series revolves around Ackman killing more people, Tenshi hiring various agents to do his job for him, sexual jokes, etc.

Adaptations

Anime adaptation

In 1994 the series was adapted into a fifteen-minute mini movie and premiered at V Jump Festa. The film managed to retell the first few chapters involving Ackman's bouts with Tenshi and the first two hired thugs. A few frames from the later chapter were used during the closing credits.

Video game adaptations

The manga has been adapted into a series of three console based platform video games for the Super Famicom. The first of these was more closesly based on the comics. The second pitted Ackman against an angelic rock group called the Metal Angels. The last saw Ackman face a flamboyantly gay pedophile police officer, and saw Ackman teaming up with his longtime rival Tenshi-kun. Both characters were playable and could be switched between. These games were action platformers like most licensed games of the day, with gameplay vaguely similar to Mega Man. There was also a handheld game for the Game Boy that was a maze chase game like Pac-Man.

References

1. ↑ Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater Vol. 3, ISBN 4-08-872053-9 ISBN 978-4088720531
2. ↑ Akira Toriyama Man-Kan Zenseki 1, ISBN 4-08-618772-8 ISBN 978-4086187725

External links

• http://www.lupinencyclopedia.com/avrc/series/29.php
• http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/company/12635.html