Kerberos Panzer Cop

Kerberos Panzer Cop
Original edition with promo obi for StrayDog (1990)
犬狼伝説
(Kenrō Densetsu)
Manga
Written byMamoru Oshii
Illustrated byKamui Fujiwara
Published byKasakura Shuppansha
Nihon Shuppansha
Kadokawa Shoten
Gakken
MagazineAmazing Comics
Combat Comic
Shōnen Ace
DemographicShōnen
Original runOctober 1988 – January 2000
March 2009 (Special Issue)
Volumes2
Manga
Kerberos Saga Rainy Dogs
Written byMamoru Oshii
Illustrated byMamoru Sugiura
Published byKadokawa Shoten
MagazineAce Tokunoh
DemographicSeinen
Original runMay 2003 – July 2004
Volumes1
Films
Related works

Kerberos Panzer Cop, also known as Hellhounds Legend (犬狼伝説, Kenrou Densetsu, lit. "Legend of Dogs and Wolves"), and as Hellhounds: Panzer Cops or just Hellhounds overseas, is an alternate history political thriller manga written by Mamoru Oshii and illustrated by Kamui Fujiwara (Studio 2B) with mechanical designs by Yutaka Izubuchi, running from 1988 to January 2000. Part of the Kerberos Saga and set before Oshii's 1987 film The Red Spectacles, the manga details the history and events surrounding the Special Armed Garrison, nicknamed "Kerberos", a Tokyo-based counterterrorist police tactical unit operating in an alternate history authoritarian postwar Japan.

Part I (Act 1~4) of Kerberos Panzer Cop was published in various Japanese comic magazines from 1988 to 1990, it was later completed with Part II (Act 5~8) published in Monthly Shōnen Ace from 1999 to 2000. Translated versions of the complete series were issued in South Korea, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia and Taiwan in the early 2000s. An English language adaptation of the first four acts was published under the title Hellhounds: Panzer Cops in 1994 by Dark Horse Comics. The American translators from Studio Protheus, Alan Gleason and Toren Smith, randomly used the alternative titles Hellhounds (Cerberos: Panzer Cop) and Hellhounds. This adaptation was later issued in the United Kingdom by Diamond Comic Distributors in 1998, and a translated version was published in the German magazine Manga Power [de] in 1996.

In 2009, an omake-style issue, Kerberos Panzer Cop: Special Issue (前夜-ケルベロス騒乱異聞, zenya - keruberosu souran ibun), was published in Kerberos Panzer Cops: Tokyo War, the Kerberos Saga's definitive guide.[1] In April 2010, for the 20th anniversary of the Original Edition (1990 volume compilation), publisher Gakken issued Kerberos Panzer Cop a Revision: 20th edition (犬狼伝説 20周年エディション), a digitally refined and corrected reissue of the entire manga, alongside a special pamphlet and a Protect Gear model figure.[2][3]

Kerberos Panzer Cop has been adapted into films twice: first in 1991's StrayDog: Kerberos Panzer Cops, directed by Oshii, loosely based on the manga's premise; and again in 1999's Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, directed by Hiroyuki Okiura and written by Oshii, based on Act I of the manga. A sequel, Kerberos Saga Rainy Dogs, was serialized in Ace Tokunoh from 2003 to 2005, then published as an extended single volume in 2005.

  1. ^ Kerberos Panzer Cops: Tokyo War (ケルベロス東京市街戦首都警特機隊全記録), page 154, March 17 of 2009
  2. ^ "Kerberos-Saga.jp - 2009.07.17 - news099: 「犬狼伝説 20周年エディション」&限定仕様BOXが発売決定!". Archived from the original on 2009-07-27. Retrieved 2009-07-29.
  3. ^ Kerberos Panzer Cops: Tokyo War (ケルベロス東京市街戦首都警特機隊全記録), obi strip information, March 17 of 2009