is a Japanese

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is use ...

series written and illustrated by

Yoshihiro Takahashi is a Japanese manga artist. He writes under a pen name in which his first name ''Yoshihiro'' is spelled out in hiragana (よしひろ). Takahashi was born September 18, 1953, in Higashinaruse, Akita. He was very interested in drawing coming of ...

. It was published by

Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...

in ''

Weekly Shōnen Jump is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the '' Jump'' line of magazines. The manga series within the magazine consist of many action scenes and a fair amount of comedy. The chapters of the series that r ...

'' from 1983 to 1987, and collected in 18 bound volumes. It received the 1987

Shogakukan Manga Award The is one of Japan's major manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier J ...

for best shōnen series. It was licensed in North America in 2020 by Manga Planet. The series tells the story of a young

Akita Inu The is a historic dog breed of large size originating from the mountains of northern Japan. The two separate varieties of Akita are a pure Japanese strain, commonly called Akita-ken (''ken'' is the on'yomi for ''inu'' meaning dog in Japanese), and ...

pup called Gin (Japanese for "silver") who leaves his master, a young boy named Daisuke, to join a pack of wild dogs. The pack is gathering strong dogs from all over Japan to fight a giant, monstrous, bloodthirsty and deranged

Kodiak bear The Kodiak bear (''Ursus arctos middendorffi''), also known as the Kodiak brown bear, sometimes the Alaskan brown bear, inhabits the islands of the Kodiak Archipelago in southwest Alaska. It is the largest recognized subspecies or population ...

named Akakabuto (Japanese for "red helmet") and his entire army of bears. The story begins from the point of view of the humans, but swings to the dogs afterwards. Takahashi was reportedly inspired by a news article about

hunting dog A hunting dog is a canine that hunts with or for hunters. There are several different types of hunting dog developed for various tasks and purposes. The major categories of hunting dog include hounds, terriers, dachshunds, cur type dogs, and ...

s that had been abandoned by their owners and had begun living as wild animals. ''Silver Fang: The Shooting Star Gin'' was adapted as a 21-episode

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

television series by

Toei Animation () is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including '' Sally the Witch,'' '' GeGeGe no Kitarō,'' '' Mazinger Z'', '' Galaxy Express 999'', '' Cutie Honey'', '' Dr. Sl ...

. In western countries, the anime was released as a set of four VHS tapes, and censored for violent images to make the anime more suitable for younger audiences. This led to the removal of several plot-critical scenes, including all footage from the episodes preceding the series finale as well as the deaths of certain characters. Due to limitations of sound-editing at the time this resulted in the background music of certain scenes to be lost. The anime has been dubbed in Korean, Thai, Finnish, Hungarian, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. In 2003, the uncensored and non-dubbed version of the anime was released in Finland and Sweden as a 5 DVD box set. A corresponding DVD set was released in Denmark and Norway on October 3, 2006, with new dubs in both Danish and Norwegian. The Finnish publisher Punainen jättiläinen is releasing the original 18-volume manga with the first volume published in May 2010. The ''Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin'' data book, was released in September 2011 and after ''Silver Fang: The Shooting Star Gin'' ended, its sequel, started to be published in December 2011. The manga has been released for iPhone,

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operati ...

, and

iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a music pl ...

at Apple's

iTunes App Store The App Store is an app store platform, developed and maintained by Apple Inc., for mobile apps on its iOS and iPadOS operating systems. The store allows users to browse and download approved apps developed within Apple's iOS Software Deve ...

and it is also available in English.

Plot

Media

Manga

Anime

The TV series was produced by

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as (also known as EX and and stylized as TV asahi), is a television station that is owned and operated by the subsidiary of certified broadcasting holding company , itself controlled by The Asahi Shimbun Com ...

and

, with

Tomoharu Katsumata is a Japanese film director best known for his work on various anime works. A leading director at the Toei Animation studio during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, Katsumata worked as a director on several of Toei's anime television adaptations of ...

serving as series director, Mitsuru Majima and

Kenji Terada is a Japanese scenario writer, anime director, series organizer and novelist. His more notable works include writing the first three games of the ''Final Fantasy'' series. He also worked on '' Batman: Dark Tomorrow'', created the concept for the ...

writing the scripts, Jōji Yanase designing the characters, and Gorō Oumi composing the music. It was broadcast every Monday from 19:30 to 20:00 (Japan Standard Time) on TV Asahi affiliate stations from April 7 to September 22, 1986, for a total of 21 episodes. The anime adaptation ended with the Akakabuto arc, and the Hakkenshi arc was not produced. In addition, the development of the last half of the story is simplified, with some dogs lacking any lines and their appearances reduced compared to the original manga.

Takayuki Miyauchi , is a Japanese vocalist best known for his work on theme songs for tokusatsu and anime. A resident of Ibaraki Prefecture, he began his career as founding member and lead vocalist of the band "WHY" in 1981 before making his solo debut in 1984, s ...

performed both the opening and ending themes, "Nagareboshi Gin" and "TOMORROW".

Reception

It received the 1987

for best shōnen series.

References

External links

''Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin'' on Toei Animation website

Stage play ''Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin - Kizuna-hen''

Stage play ''Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin - Gajō Kessen-hen''
* * {{Tomoharu Katsumata 1986 anime television series debuts Animated television series about dogs Comics about dogs Shōnen manga Shueisha manga Toei Animation television TV Asahi original programming Winners of the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen manga