The Yoichiro Minami Catalogue

The Yoshimasa Ikeda Compilation seems to be commonly sold in secondhand stores and auction sites all over Japan. Two copies of both volumes 6 and 20 of the Shonen Novel Compilation are in Canberra’s National Library of Australia.

The Wilton Instalments are, in release order: The Roaring Jungle and Capturing The Beasts (both 1933), The Great Amazon Secret and The Jungle King (both 1940), The Deadly Beast Hunt (1941), The Great Amazon Monument (another crossover, released in 1947), The Dinosaur Kingdom (a crossover released in 1949) and Winding Through The Big Green Monument (abridged version released in 1950, uncut expanded edition released in 1954). 

The Cryptid Lands Instalments are, in Release Order: The Flat Deserted Green Island (released in 1938), A Sailor On The Flat Deserted Green Island (released in 1943), The Jungle Mystery (released in 1947), The Flat Deserted Green Island Adventure (reboot/sequel/remake released in 1948), and A Huge Ship In the Jungle (released in 1950). Of these distantly linked books, The Flat Deserted Green Island remains the only one with more than five affordable non-compilation reprints. 

The Lone Island Instalments are The Secret of the Lone Island (1940), A Pirate of the Lone Island (1947) and 15 Boys on the Lone Island (1948). They’re not frequently reprinted. 

The Classic Baruuba Instalments are, in chronological order: The Jungle Orphan, The Golden Lion, The Phantom Footprints, The Kingdom On The Rocks (a prototype where Baruuba is a recurring character), The Iron Man’s Fingerprints, The Black Panther Kingdom and The Treasure Pursuit. 

The anonymous Instalments are, The Magic Castle in the Air, The Magic Shiva Statue, The Treasure of the Great Kingdom, The Lion King’s Treasure Sword, The Arctic Star, The Ghost Tower, Nitto Adventure King, Under the Southern Cross, The Fierce Beast Hunting Adventure, The Jungle King ‘48, The Great Pirate’s Treasure, The Terror of Cannibal Island, The Phantom Ship, Beyond the Sea of Magic, The Drifting Beast Ship, Devil’s Hall of Fame, The Skull Mask, The Devil’s Golden Sea Tower, The Magic Kingdom’s Iron Palace, An Ocean Adventure Story, The Devil Sea King, The Single Eared Leopard, The Devil’s Sea Treasure, The Monster from Hell, The Magical Sea’s Treasure, The Ogre Bandit and The Demon Island. 

A Light Novel Connoisseur’s Creaky Summary on Light Novels

From the connoisseur’s site: https://lightnovel.jp/blog/archives/2015/0301.html

The "origin of light novels and the formation after that" that I wrote a long time ago has been published in 2008, so I'd like to reorganize it a little. Roughly speaking, it is said that light novels were born in the 1970s under the influence of easy to read science fiction paperbacks, and then became what they are now under the influence of anime, RPGs, and bishoujo games.

It seems that middle grade novels for primary school boys (and later on, young adult novels for teenaged boys) had been popular in magazines such as "Shonen Sekai (created in 1895)" and "Shonen Club (created in 1914)" before world war 2. However, it declined in the 1950s, largely to be replaced by the mangas, mostly represented by Osamu Tezuka. So, although these pre-war/interwar/early post-war novels are one of the origins of light novels, they seem to be a little different if they are direct ancestors.

Rather, the direct ancestors of light novels are likely to be short, easy to read science fiction paperbacks, which have formed a boom since the 1960s. In the early 1960s, science fiction writers such as Sakyo Komatsu, Yasutaka Tsutsui, Taku Mayumura, Kazumasa Hirai, and Ryu Mitsuse appeared one after another, and it seems that easy to read science fiction paperbacks in Japan will have a big boom in the latter half of the 1960s. A then-new breed of Japanese science fiction writers (who appeal to teens and young adults) would appear as the first writers who supported the birth of Light Novels in the 1970s.

Yasutaka Tsutsui's "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" has a big impact on the eve of the birth of light novels, and was serialized in two Kadokawa Shoten Magazines for youths, Chugaku Sannen Course and Ko-Ichi Course in 1965-66 and made into a drama in the NHK Shonen Drama Series in 1972. Also, in 1965, Taku Mayumura's "Mysterious Transfer Student" was also serialized in the Chuunibyo Course. This was also made into a drama in the NHK Shonen Drama Series in 1975, and then recorded in Akimoto Bunko and Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Even if you look at the publication, it is for boys/girls, and it is truly a pioneering work of light novels.

In the 1970s, the number of novels for boys/girls increased, and finally, a paperback label for boys/girls appeared. In many cases, the birth of light novels was marked by the launch of Akimoto Bunko, Cobalt Bunko, and Sonorama Bunko, or just before that. In the early days, Kazumasa Hirai, Taku Mayumura, Ryu Mitsuse and others were active, and eventually Motoko Arai, Saeko Himuro, Haruka Takachiho, Baku Yumemakura, Hideyuki Kikuchi, Yuichi Sasamoto have all appeared, and these writers led the light novels of the 1980s. 

Since the birth of Sonorama Bunko, there have been novelizations of anime shows and films, but it was during this period that light novels became an otaku's reading material. The movie adaptation of "Space Battleship Yamato" in 1978 produced a large number of anime fans, and the novelization of anime shows+movies and the animations of light novels would be actively carried out targeting those anime fans. However, the anime boom rapidly diminished in the late 1980s.

In the late 1980s, RPG culture swept light novels. Introducing "Record of Lodoss War" and "Slayers". Until then, light novels, which were filled with erotica and violence, became all about Isekai fantasies at one point. At that time, aiming at an area of ​​otaku content that was blank after the anime boom ended, I felt that Kadokawa and Fujimi created the boom, by pushing hard on the still new tabletop RPG and computer RPG. Until then, Sonorama Bunko and Cobalt Bunko took several years to establish the direction of the Bunkobons, while Fujimi Fantasia Bunko was aimed at fantasy for otaku from the beginning.

Since the peak sales of "Slayers!" was in 1996 and the animated adaptation of "Sorcerous Stabber Orphen", another masterpiece of different world fantasy, was made in 1999, it can be said that light novels somewhat erroneously equal Isekai until at least the latter half of the 1990s. I think it was a middling situation. Also, I think it's probably because of the time that the light novels had a "lighthearted" image due to the influence of "Slayers!" and the work was itself created by Satoru Akahori.

In 1998, "Boogiepop", "Full Metal", "Marimite", and other works that led the next era would appear. Even in the era of Isekai, there were masterpieces of that genre such as "St. Elsa", "The Irresponsible Captain Tylor" and "Yamamoto Yoko", but to change the image of light novel equalling Isekai, I had to wait for them to appear and gain popularity.

In addition, since 2000, the influence of bishoujo games, mostly centering on Leaf and Key's works, would also come out. "I don't need tears in heaven" based on "Moe" was released in 2001, and "Infinity Zero" was released in 2002, where the influence of Key can be seen. In 2004, Noboru Yamaguchi's "Zero no Tsukaima", based on a bishojo Game, appeared. Yuyuko Takemiya, also from another bishoujo game "Our Tamura-kun", was also made in 2004. Since "Zero no Tsukaima" first appeared, the number of writers from bishojo games has increased, and the moe anthropomorphism of light novels has become remarkably uncomfortable for some readers.

Light novels, which weren't really talked about until the 1990s, became the focus of public attention in the mid-2000s critique book boom, resulting in an animated rush like the light novel bubble. Well, I've been blogging since 1995, but in the 1990s there was no light novel community on the internet. In the first place, the name "light novel" had not been established, and no one was paying attention to light novels so much that it didn't bother me.

It would change around 2000. The number of works that are talked about around Dengeki Bunko, such as "Boogiepop", is increasing, and it is difficult to talk about novels around here without a name, so "Light Novel" was originally used in Nifty Serve Local of PC communication. It is a format that came to be called by the name. Maybe it was like that.

The name "light novel" attracted attention, and in 2004, light novel critique books were released one after another, and from around 2005, a large number of animated adaptations would be made. Looking at "Ranobe TV Animation-Matsu Diary", except for the second term, there were 2 in 2004 → 6 in 2005 → 17 in 2006. The number of animated adaptations has increased dramatically. Among these massy animated adaptations are "Shakugan No Shana" in 2005, "Haruhi Suzumiya" and "Zero Man" in 2006, and due to their success, light novels are still being animated in large numbers. Really, "Haruhi Suzumiya" was a terrifyingly massive box office hit.

And there are two major recent trends in light novels. It will be the influx of online novels represented by Narō-kei and the penetration and spread of light novels represented by Media Works Bunko and Shincho Bunko Nex. In the olden days, there was "The Irregular at Magic" as a book of online novels, but "Sword Art Online", "Maoyu Maoyu Hero", and "The Irregular at Magic High School" have attracted attention. Is it from around 2010 when it comes out? Since the first issue of Hero Bunko in 2012, the number of so-called "Narō-kei labels" has increased, and it seems that it has become quite noticeable recently. Also, maybe there is an influence of Narō-kei, compared to the 2000s, it seems that fantasy has regained some rights and "moe" has become more modest once again.

Regarding the spread of light novels, as a result of the general recognition of light novels in the previous critique book boom, writers such as Honobu Yonezawa and Hiro Arikawa crossed the border of light novels from around 2005, and Kazuki Sakuraba in 2008. Kazuki's Naoki Prize was a big event. However, although Media Works Bunko was launched in 2009, the following labels did not appear immediately, yet "Biblia Koshodou no Jiken Techo" and "Coffee Shop Taleran no Jikenbo" became big hits, and finally Fujimi L Bunko and Shincho Bunko Nex would follow in 2014.

Notable Kenya Boy cast members

The bootleg Korean remake of Kenya Boy must have been the franchise’s first known unofficial instalment. 

The Kenya Boy radio drama seems to be the first known official adaptation of the franchise after the famed Emonogatari graphic novels and the cancelled Kamishibai itself; as it aired from 1953 to 1954. Except for Hideko Kariya as Kate, the cast of such a short lived drama is perhaps unknown even to most Japanese people living today. 

The first onscreen adaptation of the Kenya Boy Mythos is the infamously unavailable 1954 Daiei film; which is where some elements of its more famous animated reimagining came from. The first known actors to play Joe (then called Wataru as in other previous editions and adaptations) and Kate onscreen were ex-teen idols Kiichi Ito and the somewhat better known Michiko Ueda, who is primarily known (nowadays) simply as both an independent pianist and the mother of celebrity entrepreneur Keitaro Tsuda. 

The Toei tv adaptation of Kenya Boy is well known for playing quite fast and loose with the Mythos. What made it quite a successful annual show was that it had the classic quartet of fellow veteran celebs Wataru Yamakawa (aka Nobuo Kutsuna), Midori Seki, the multitalented Hayato Tani (aka Hajime Iwatani), and the late Yukiko Kuwahara (who are all former teen idols) as Joe, Kate, Taru Taru and Jasmine. It also had a fairly popular manga companion with its own unofficial Taiwanese remake. While both are somewhat more faithful to the old graphic novels, they’re otherwise compatible with the show itself for the most part. 

The most famous adaptation of the Kenya Boy Mythos is the (so bad its good) 1984 Toei anime film, which (in an ironic twist) is a magnificent improvement of a soft remake to the 1954 Daiei film. Being both a teen and a young adult at a time when the main Toei Company’s had been churning a ton of (otherwise run of the mill to very good) Metal Heroes Shows (from the 80s to the 90s), former teen idol Junichiro Katagiri and entrepreneurial editor Ryoichi Takayanagi are the most notable pre-PlayStation era portrayers of Joe, whereas the multitalented Tomoyo Harada is the most famous pre-PlayStation portrayer of Kate so far. 

The Metropolis Quintet

Two Tezuka versions, two Harbou works, and a single Madhouse film. 

As both the movie screenplay and its literary source material will become copyright free in 2025 for most nations, the flexibility of Metropolis as a story is remarkably well proven for the internet age.

Into the Heart of the Jungle

Strong feelings will abound for a crazy Sydneyside exhibition focusing on the fan works of the few major Soji Yamakawa properties long known to anime fans, and largely Japanese fans anyway. At least within a few years. 

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 somehow more enlightening 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 kind of 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 Papio 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 longtime visitor (whose real name shall not be mentioned for legal reasons) on Fukkan’s website, the whole story should’ve had twenty (for an abridged version which currently has only ten because of Haruki Kadokawa’s excessive and long term franchise-dumping strategies), thirty or forty volumes made during its creator’s lifetime. 

The first major retelling, albeit of the same version as the stories from both pre-1949 and Omoshiro Book postwar periods, was for Yonen Book (aimed at older children and preteens) in the mid-late 1950s. A faux-finale/continuation of the second version, known as the New Boy Champion, was made for Shueisha’s Omoshiro Book in 1957. One of the older reprints, which is basically a reduction 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 tribute 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 analysis 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 much more faithful continuation (to the point of expanding the picture story itself!) was drawn by the late, great Hiroshima native Sanpei Wachi (1926-99). 

The most popular one, despite initially being made (as a tie in to a likely scrapped Toku adaptation) for only 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 internationally unsung occult manga talent Jirō Tsunoda (born in 1936). A bolder and more middle school friendly soft remake/sequel (since I am confused with all three), drawn largely by Sanpei Shirato himself, was likely also produced for Shogaku Sannensei 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 both forgotten and unavailable media (though not really lost forever, which is okay) even funnier, is that a (rather internationally obscure) pop culture expert (replete with a Twitter account nonetheless!) probably has/had sold its screenplay and its direction in paper sheets to a fanboy-private collector, whereas a not quite famous (at least internationally) online karaoke star (who’s also a fan of Kaiju films, 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 (in twenty six parts though) 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 forty nine picture story volumes long until the end of the 2020s.

There is also a preceding strip version, a rarely seen monthly retelling, and a Suntory tribute, which are all known primarily to hardcore fans. The retelling was made in 1968 for Wild, a fabulous but weak selling magazine by Tiger Shobo, which was one of the short lived businesses run by Souji Yamakawa during his lifetime. The tribute 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. 

WMT competitors

WMT competitors 

TMS Literary Theatre 

The Adventures Of Gamba #

Nobody’s Boy Remi #

Treasure Island # 

Moby Dick Five 

Botchan #

Twenty Four Eyes: based on a novel. 

Sanshiro Sugata 

Sherlock Hound 

The Psammead 

Little Nemo In Slumberland

Anpanman $: the most successful but only extant entry in the whole TMS Literary Theatre, which technically counts since it is based loosely upon a series of young children’s beginner books. 

The Mischievous Twins At St Clare’s 

Lottie And Lisa

My Patrasche 

The Secret Of The Cerulean Sand 

Emily Of New Moon

Madhouse Classics 

The Adventures Of Gamba: A tv show and a few movies were made by TMS and Madhouse together. 

Nobody’s Boy Remi: The show and its movie are lighter and softer than the more adult book they’re loosely based on. 

Treasure Island: Likely the best ever animated Treasure Island adaptation with the straight model. It also comes with both a movie and a prequel by the way. 

Botchan: The sole main animated adaptation of a famous boys’ novel by Natsume Soseki. 

Ōshin: Actually a companion film to a famous dramatisation based loosely upon the founders of Yaohan’s lives. 

The Dagger of Kamui *: The anime film is way better known than the original novel series, which frankly needs completion at all costs. 

Chironup No Kitsune

Enoki Films Masterpieces 

The Wonderful Galaxy Of Oz: A cross between the Land of Oz and Star Wars. 

Huckleberry Finn 

Willow Town: An urban adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows. 

Toei World Classics 

Little Remi And His Famous Dog Capi 

Animal Treasure Island   

Les Miserables 

The Little Women

Maeterlinck’s Blue Bird * 

Taro The Dragon Boy

The Call Of The Wild 

Adrift In The Pacific 

Wagahai Wa Neko De Aru 

The Boy And The Blue Sea

The Life Of Don Matsugoro 

The Cherry Tree 

Kenya Boy 

The Dagger of Kamui 

The Snow Country Prince 

Coo From The Distant Sea 

Crayon Kingdom of Dreams: Based loosely upon a series of children’s novels known for being The Land of Oz’s closest Japanese equivalent. 

Future Folktales 

Group TAC Literary Legends (retired) 

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn 

Maeterlinck’s Blue Bird 

The Night On The Galactic Railroad: The most famous entry of the Group TAC Literary Legends.

Chironup No Kitsune *

Spring And Chaos

Pierrot Kids Literary Classics 

The Wonderful Adventures of Nils 

Mrs Pepper Pot

The Mysterious Cities of Gold 

Old Taito and Square Enix Games

Here are the potential adaptations to old Taito and Square Enix games. 

Solo series 

Onna Sanshiro - The Typhoon Girl’s Journey To Nowhere

Lady Master of Kung Fu and Nunchackun - Treasure Hunter Nunchackun 

 

Potential non-DQ, non-FF, non-PK, non-FMA, non-BB franchises 

Safari and (the Sōji Yamakawa created volumes of) Kenya Boy (+ the third word Safari) - Kenya Boy Safari: The Animation 

Jungle King/Hunt and one of the Kenya Boy spinoffs - Jungle Hunt: The Animation