Silver Fang: The Shooting Star Gin | |
銀牙 -流れ星 銀- (Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin) | |
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Manga | |
Written by | Yoshihiro Takahashi |
Published by | Shueisha |
English publisher | |
Imprint | Jump Comics |
Magazine | Weekly Shōnen Jump |
Demographic | Shōnen |
Original run | December 12, 1983 – March 23, 1987 |
Volumes | 18 |
Anime television series | |
Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin | |
Directed by | Tomoharu Katsumata |
Produced by | Kazuo Yokoyama |
Written by |
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Music by | Gorō Oumi |
Studio | Toei Animation |
Original network | ANN (TV Asahi) |
Original run | April 7, 1986 – September 22, 1986 |
Episodes | 21 |
Sequel | |
Silver Fang: The Shooting Star Gin (Japanese: 銀牙 -流れ星 銀-, Hepburn: Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Takahashi. It was published in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1983 to 1987, and collected in 18 bound volumes. The manga became digitally available in English through the Apple's iTunes App Store in 2011.[2] It was licensed in North America in 2020 by Manga Planet.
The series tells the story of a young Akita Inu 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 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 dogs 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 television series by Toei Animation. 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.
It received the 1987 Shogakukan Manga Award for best shōnen series.
A sequel manga by Takahashi, titled Weed, was published from 1999 to 2009, with four other series following since.