Barefoot Gen

Barefoot Gen
Original Japanese first volume
はだしのゲン
(Hadashi no Gen)
GenreHistorical[1]
Manga
Written byKeiji Nakazawa
Published by
English publisher
Magazine
DemographicShōnen, seinen
Original runMay 22, 19731987
Volumes10
Novel
Hadashi no Gen wa Pikadon wo wasurenai
(Barefoot Gen Will Never Forget the Bomb)
Written byKeiji Nakazawa
Published byIwanami Shoten
PublishedJuly 1982
Novel
Hadashi no Gen he no Tegami
(A Letter to Barefoot Gen)
Written byKeiji Nakazawa
Published byKyouikuShiryo Publishing
PublishedJuly 1991
Novel
Jiden Hadashi no Gen
(Autobiography of Barefoot Gen)
Written byKeiji Nakazawa
Published byKyouikuShiryo Publishing
PublishedJuly 1994
Novel
Hadashi no Gen in Hiroshima
(Barefoot Gen in Hiroshima)
Written by
  • Keiji Nakazawa
  • Kyo Kijima
Published byKodansha
PublishedJuly 1999
Novel
Hadashi no Gen ga ita Fukei
(Where Barefoot Gen Was)
Written by
  • Kazuma Yoshimura
  • Yoshiaki Fukuma
Published byAzusa Syuppansya
PublishedJuly 2006
Television drama
Barefoot Gen
Directed by
  • Nishiura Masaki
  • Murakami Masanori
Original networkFuji TV
Original run August 10, 2007 August 11, 2007
Episodes2
Novel
Hadashi no Gen wa Hiroshima wo Wasurenai
(Barefoot Gen will never forget about Hiroshima)
Written byKeiji Nakazawa
Published byIwanami Shoten
PublishedAugust 2008
Live-action films
Anime films

Barefoot Gen (はだしのゲン, Hadashi no Gen) is a Japanese historical manga series by Keiji Nakazawa, loosely based on Nakazawa's experiences as a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bombing. The series begins in 1945 in and around Hiroshima, Japan, where six-year-old Gen Nakaoka lives with his family. After Hiroshima is destroyed by the bombing, Gen and other survivors deal with the aftermath. The series was published in several magazines, including Weekly Shōnen Jump, from 1973 to 1987. It was adapted into three live-action film versions directed by Tengo Yamada, which were released between 1976 and 1980. Madhouse released two anime films, one in 1983 and the other in 1986. In August 2007, a two-night live-action television drama series aired in Japan on Fuji TV.

Cartoonist Keiji Nakazawa created Ore wa Mita (translated into English as I Saw It), an eyewitness account of the atomic-bomb devastation in Japan, for Monthly Shōnen Jump in 1972. It was published in the United States by Educomics in 1982.[2] Nakazawa began to serialize the longer, autobiographical Hadashi No Gen (Barefoot Gen)[2] in the June 4, 1973 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump.[3] It was canceled after a year and a half and moved to three other, less-widely-distributed magazines: Shimin (Citizen), Bunka Hyōron (Cultural Criticism), and Kyōiku Hyōron (Educational Criticism). The series began to appear in Japanese book collections in 1975.

  1. ^ "Barefoot Gen Manga to Be Used as School Material". Anime News Network. Retrieved May 31, 2018.
  2. ^ a b "Barefoot Gen a.k.a. Gen of Hiroshima". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on 2024-05-27. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
  3. ^ "はだしのゲン". Media Arts Database (in Japanese). Agency for Cultural Affairs. Archived from the original on August 16, 2016. Retrieved November 24, 2020.