As artworks belonging to (the definitively superior and much more popular manga adaptation of) Isamu of the Wilderness are technically created by Noboru Kawasaki in his own studio, the manga as a result is not a major focus for legal reasons, even though it otherwise has the same writer as Kenya Boy.
The Tiger Boy, aka Shonen Tiger, has about five versions, three of which have almost been completely lost for a long time. Only the much campier mid-late 1950s strip and book volume versions are known in Japan even today, even though both are still somewhat unfinished. The catch is still that the much better known Sankei volume version (lasting from 1956-59) is surprisingly more commonly seen in online auction sites, despite similarly commanding high prices. The other three are technically sequels/soft reboots to each other and are all in the Kamishibai format.
The Boy Champion, also known as the Boy King, hasn’t been reprinted for a long time due to being pretty fair for its day, which is understandable since the second and most popular version was first made in the mid-late 1940s shortly after WW2 ended. Even though there is a much lesser known sludge of appendix books from the early, pre-Omoshiro and Yonen book period, there are a couple of supplements and two combined books from the Omoshiro/Yonen book period (both of which are unfortunately reduced).
There are chapters and supplements which haven’t been added into the actual Emonogatari books (mostly of the second and sixth versions) for a long time, even though some of them have been adapted into mangas already. ‘The Beast Palace’ still doesn’t seem to appear as much in the books and mangas, which mostly due to its rather values dissonant content. Neither are the generally completed short stories ‘The Last Dinosaur’, ‘Zambaro’s Adventure’ and a couple of others. Even by then, the whole story is somewhat but not fully complete. According to a familiar visitor on Fukkan’s website, the whole story should’ve had twenty to thirty volumes made during its creator’s lifetime.
The first major reprint, albeit of the same version as the stories from both early and Omoshiro Book postwar periods, was for Yonen Book in the mid 1950s. A faux-finale/continuation of the second version, known as the New Boy Champion, was made for Shueisha’s Omoshiro Book in 1957. The third version, which is basically a major reprint of the second for primary school kids of the fifties, was itself made for Omoshiro Book (a Shueisha school mag) in 1957-58, while a rarely seen fourth version was made primarily for Shogakukan’s Shogaku Nensei school magazines in November 1963-September 64. A much rarer fifth version was made for Suntory Ogamishibai (a short lived co-venture of Suntory and Nippon Reader’s Digest) in November 1974. Finally, a long overdue sequel to the postwar Boy Champion and its 1957 faux-finale New Boy Champion was made for the Tabi magazine in October 1980. There is also a sixth mostly surviving version (from Kadokawa Shoten), itself a budget reprint which indeed has considerably improved writing (thanks to a possible team of hip and then-upcoming ghostwriters), but it isn’t as popular, partly due to most of its volumes being printed in a rather inadequate resolution, as well as the plot execution being somewhat iffy (combined with inexperienced ghostwriters, volume gaps and all) in comparison. The first version is pretty much the only one that is both a prototype and which seems entirely lost, as only the few footnotes of it have survived and, perhaps from a modern Japanese kid’s point of view, could have been a really crude piece of schmuck bait in hindsight, all according to sources like the honestly somewhat flowery AZITO.
There are about five major manga adaptations known to hardcore fans of the Boy Champ. The first one was drawn by the (very long lived but) internationally little known Yonkoma talent Akira Otomo (born in 1926), while its continuation was drawn by the late, great Hiroshima native Sanpei Wachi (1926-99). The most popular one, despite only being made for two of the Shogaku Nensei magazines (Shogaku Ninensei and Shogaku Sannensei) from 1961 to 1964, was drawn initially by Sanpei Shirato (1932-2021), one of the people behind the invasion of ninjas into international markets, and later by unsung occult manga talent Jirō Tsunoda (born in 1936). A bolder and more middle school friendly soft reboot/sequel (since I am confused with all three), drawn solely by Sanpei Shirato himself, was also produced for another one of said magazines in 1966.
There once was a radio drama adaptation, made a year before Kenya Boy’s radio drama and aired on Nippon Cultural Broadcasting in 1952-53.
Last but not least, there’s even a scrapped anime adaptation, written and directed by the late Japanese film industry maestro Kinji Fukusaku (1930-2003). What makes its status as (partly) found media even funnier, is that a (rather internationally obscure) pop culture expert (replete with a Twitter account nonetheless!) probably has/had its screenplay and its direction in paper sheets, whereas a not quite famous (at least internationally) hardcore fan (mostly of Kaiju films, yet also replete with a Twitter account) has a toy projector containing the anime’s (barely seen) surviving reels.
Kenya Boy began life as a propagandistic Kamishibai prototype which wasn’t even fully made within its creator’s lifetime, as the creator himself was partly forced by corrupt dudes to do something really uncomfortable in hindsight as well, and later on, was also very unsubtle in its delivery of propaganda related stuff. That said, it pretty much got cancelled for good, partly due to many factors. Shortly after WW2 ended, the definitive second version was instead written with much more nuance (for the 50s, mind you) in mind and became very popular with older children and young teens as a result. It only has thirteen volumes and two appendix books. There are two other surviving versions, one of which is a pretty good budget reprint (despite only having ten volumes), while the other one is pretty much so okay it’s average (while having twenty volumes), even if its predecessor surely seems to burrow a lot of things from both the cheesy 1961 manga and tv series, as both of which preceded them by a few decades more. As indicated by how messed up its production history has become, Kenya Boy won’t be fifty six picture story volumes long until the end of the 2020s.
There is also a preceding strip version, a rarely seen rewrite, and a sequel/continuation, which are all known primarily to hardcore fans. The first rewrite was made in 1968 for Wild, a weak selling magazine by Tiger Shobo, which was one of the short lived businesses run by Souji Yamakawa during his lifetime. The continuation/soft rewrite was made for Suntory Ogamishibai (a little known co-venture of Suntory and Nippon Reader’s Digest) in September 1974.
The story’s adaptations often include; a now almost fully lost 1953-54 radio drama which aired on Nippon Cultural Broadcasting, an equally unavailable black and white tokusatsu film which was distributed by Daiei, a surviving black and white Toei tokusatsu tv show which played fast and loose with the Mythos, a Shogakukan Weekly Shōnen Sunday manga known for largely being (somewhat) more faithful to the meta-story’s second version, and and a surviving animated colour film being better known for being more popular (albeit as a bizarre kids film) outside of Japan, which is mostly due to its so bad it’s good execution (charmingly) contradicting the surreal nature of its summarised storyline, replete with a companion series of children’s picture books and a manga tie in from Fujimi Shobo.
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