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| Wing-Man | |
 Cover of the first volume | |
| ウイングマン (Uinguman) | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Science fantasy Superhero[1] |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Masakazu Katsura |
| Published by | Shueisha |
| Imprint | Jump Comics |
| Magazine | Weekly Shōnen Jump |
| Demographic | Shōnen |
| Original run | January 4, 1983 –August 27, 1985 |
| Volumes | 13 |
| Anime television series | |
| Dream Soldier Wing-Man | |
| Directed by | Tomoharu Katsumata |
| Music by | Keiichi Oku |
| Studio | Toei Animation |
| Original network | ANN (TV Asahi) |
| Original run | February 7, 1984 – February 26, 1985 |
| Episodes | 47 |
| Video game | |
| Developer | TamTam |
| Publisher | Enix |
| Genre | |
| Platform | NEC PC-8801,Fujitsu FM-7,Sharp X1,MSX |
| Released | 1984 |
| Television drama | |
| Directed by | |
| Written by |
|
| Music by | Toshinori Kawamura |
| Studio | Toei |
| Original network | TV Tokyo |
| Original run | October 23, 2024 – December 25, 2024 |
| Episodes | 10 |
Wing-Man (Japanese:ウイングマン,Hepburn:Uinguman) is a Japanesescience fantasymanga series written and illustrated byMasakazu Katsura. It was serialized inWeekly Shōnen Jump from 1983 to 1985, with the chapters collected into 13tankōbon volumes byShueisha.
Wing-Man is the story of Kenta Hirono, a fan of superheroes andsentai television shows to the point where he dreams of becoming such a hero himself. To that end, he creates a superhero of his own called "Wingman", and, much to the chagrin of his teachers, acts out his fantasies of being Wingman at school. When Kenta meets Aoi Yume, the beautiful blue-haired princess of analternate universe called Podreams, he gets his chance to make his fantasy come true, as Aoi carries a book called a Dream Note which can make any dream come true, and Kenta draws a picture of Wingman in the book, allowing him to become Wingman for real. Kenta, Aoi and Kenta's classmate and love interest, Miku Ogawa, team up to save Podreams from the evil dictator Rimel, who wants to use the Dream Note to take over Podreams, while Kenta deals with his conflicting feelings for both of his female compatriots.
Kazuhiko Torishima, the editor who discoveredMasakazu Katsura, said he was disappointed when the artist told him he wanted to draw a transforming superhero manga.[2] He explained that science fiction works in television with itsspecial effects, but it does not come across visually in manga. So Torishima proposed making it a school story involving girls and asked him to make the main character more realistic and familiar to readers.[2]
The manga was adapted into ananime television series titledDream Soldier Wing-Man (夢戦士ウイングマン,Yume Senshi Uinguman), produced byToei Animation and aired from 1984 to 1985.[3] The anime had a total of 47 episodes.[4]
Featuring character designs by Yoshinori Kanemori and intended byToei Animation to be a strongshōnen title following the female-targetedAi Shite Knight,Wing-Man marked the first anime adaptation of one of Katsura's works and the debut role ofRyo Horikawa as Kenta. (Katsura himself would later appear as Wing-Man in a live-action adaptation ofVideo Girl Ai.)
The anime's ending differs from that of the manga, but the manga's ending was dramatized with the anime's voice actors on a drama LP.
The manga was adapted into a 1984visual noveladventure game also titledDream Soldier Wing-Man. It was developed by TamTam and published byEnix for theNEC PC-8801 and otherpersonal computers.[5] It featured apoint-and-click interface, where acursor is used to interact with on-screen objects,[6] similar toPlanet Mephius (1983)[6] and theFamicom version ofThe Portopia Serial Murder Case (1985).[7]
On September 2, 2024, a live-action television adaptation ofWing-Man was announced. Co-produced byTV Tokyo,Toei Video, andDMM TV, it began airing on TV Tokyo andits affiliates on October 22, 2024 and was available on theDMM TV streaming service starting October 16.[8] Maito Fujioka and Konatsu Kato will star as Kenta Hirono and Aoi Yume respectively withUltraman,Kamen Rider &Super Sentai veteranKoichi Sakamoto as the director, "Chang[e]" by Blue Encount will be the show's opening theme song.[9] The series ended in December 25, 2024.
To promote the series, Konatsu Kato was featured in a pictorial in her Aoi Yume costume for the release of the 46th issue of Weekly Young Jump, which was released on October 17, 2024.[10]
