Wing-Man

Wing-Man (Japanese: ウイングマン, Hepburn: Uinguman) is a Japanese science fiction manga series written and illustrated by Masakazu Katsura. It was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1983 to 1985, with the chapters collected into 13 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha.

Wing-Man
Cover of the first volume of Wing-Man, as published by Shueisha in 1983.
ウイングマン
(Uinguman)
GenreScience fiction,[1] superhero[2]
Manga
Written byMasakazu Katsura
Published byShueisha
MagazineWeekly Shōnen Jump
DemographicShōnen
Original runJanuary 4, 1983 – August 27, 1985
Volumes13
Anime television series
Dream Soldier Wing-Man
Directed byTomoharu Katsumata
Music byKeiichi Oku
StudioToei Animation
Original networkTV Asahi
Original run February 7, 1984 – February 26, 1985
Episodes47
Game
DeveloperTamTam
PublisherEnix
Genre
PlatformNEC PC-8801, Fujitsu FM-7, Sharp X1, MSX
Released1984

Plot

Wing-Man is the story of Kenta Hirono, a fan of superheroes and sentai 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 an alternate 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.

Characters
Kenta Hirono (広野健太, Hirono Kenta)

Voiced by: Ryō Horikawa

Aoi Yume (夢あおい, Yume Aoi)

Voiced by: Yōko Kawanami

Miku Ogawa (小川美紅, Ogawa Miku)

Voiced by: Naoko Watanabe

Momoko Morimoto (森本桃子, Morimoto Momoko)

Voiced by: Yuriko Yamamoto

Kumiko Fuzawa (布沢久美子, Fuzawa Kumiko)

Voiced by: Seiko Nakano

Kurumi Mimori (美森くるみ, Mimori Kurumi)

Voiced by: Mitsuko Horie

Riro Ousei (桜瀬りろ, Ousei Riro)

Voiced by: Mika Ishizawa

Kenta's Father

Voiced by: Kōji Yada

Kenta's Mother

Voiced by: Mariko Mukai

Masakazu Tonari (戸鳴正和, Tonari Masakazu)

Voiced by: Akie Yasuda

Keiko Matsuoka (松岡ケイ子, Matsuoka Keiko)

Voiced by: Sumi Shimamoto

Principal

Voiced by: Takeshi Aono

Vice Principal

Voiced by: Jōji Yanami

Fukumoto (福本)

Voiced by: Michitaka Kobayashi

Doctor Lark (ドクターラーク)

Voiced by: Sanji Hase

Rimel (リメル)

Voiced by: Hideyuki Tanaka

Kitakura (キータクラー)

Voiced by: Kei Tomiyama

Kitamura-sensei (北村先生)

Voiced by: Hideyuki Tanaka

Shaft (シャフト)

Voiced by: Kaneto Shiozawa (Kōzō Shioya in episode 7)

Doctor Unbalance (ドクターアンバランス)

Voiced by: Hiroshi Ōtake

The Shiva (ザ・シーバ)

Voiced by: Mari Yokō

Nass (ナァス)

Voiced by: Bin Shimada

Ghost Rimel (ゴーストリメル)

Voiced by: Eiji Kanie

Media

Anime

The manga was adapted into an anime television series titled Dream Soldier Wing-Man (夢戦士ウイングマン, Yume Senshi Uinguman) in 1984. It also had a 1984 visual novel adventure game adaptation of the same name, developed by TamTam and published by Enix for the NEC PC-8801 and other Japanese personal computers.[3] It featured a point-and-click interface, where a cursor is used to interact with on-screen objects,[4] similar to Planet Mephius (1983)[4] and the NES version of Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (1985).[5]

The anime, featuring character designs by Yoshinori Kanemori and intended by Toei Animation to be a strong shōnen title following the female-targeted Ai Shite Knight, marked the first anime adaptation of one of Katsura's works (Katsura himself would later appear as Wingman in a live-action adaptation of Video Girl Ai) and the debut role of Ryo Horikawa as Kenta. The anime's ending is different from that of the manga; the manga ending was never animated but was dramatized with the anime's voice actors on a drama LP. Following the end of the Wing-Man anime, it would be three months before the next Toei anime television series, Konpora Kid, would premiere, marking the first time since Toei's debut TV series, 1963's Ken the Wolf Boy, that the studio had not had an animated TV series airing on TV Asahi (formerly NET).

Both the anime and manga have been released in France; the anime, slightly edited and censored to tone down some of the story's more erotic elements, aired on TF1 in 1989, and the first six volumes of the manga reached the French market in the late 1990s.

References
  1. "Dream Soldier Wingman "Momoko Morimoto" – 6" PVC Figure". Anime News Network. April 23, 2008. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  2. Thompson, Jason (December 31, 2010). "Jason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - Video Girl Ai". Anime News Network. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  3. Wingman at The Visual Novel Database
  4. "Wingman". Oh! FM-7. 2007-06-21. Retrieved 21 September 2011. (Translation)
  5. Gameman (2005-09-06). 「ポートピア連続殺人事件」の舞台を巡る. ITmedia +D Games (in Japanese). ITmedia. p. 1. Retrieved 2007-08-16. (Translation)
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