Buso Renkin: Difference between revisions
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| author = [[Nobuhiro Watsuki]] |
| author = [[Nobuhiro Watsuki]] |
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| publisher = {{flagicon|Japan}} [[Shueisha]]<br>{{flagicon|France}} [[Glénat (publisher)|Glénat]]<br>{{flagicon|United States}} {{flagicon|Canada}} [[Viz Media]]<br>{{flagicon|Germany}} [[Tokyopop]] |
| publisher = {{flagicon|Japan}} [[Shueisha]]<br>{{flagicon|France}} [[Glénat (publisher)|Glénat]]<br>{{flagicon|United States}} {{flagicon|Canada}} [[Viz Media]]<br>{{flagicon|Germany}} [[Tokyopop]] |
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| serialized = [[Shonen Jump]] |
| serialized = [[Shonen Jump]]<br>{{flagicon|Malaysia}} [[Arena Komik]] |
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| first_run = 2003 |
| first_run = 2003 |
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| last_run = 2006 |
| last_run = 2006 |
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Revision as of 09:33, 15 December 2006
| Buso Renkin | |
| File:Viz1421506157.jpg | |
| Genre | Adventure, Comedy, Shōnen |
|---|---|
| Manga | |
| Written by | Nobuhiro Watsuki |
| Published by |  Shueisha Glénat  Viz Media Tokyopop |
| Anime | |
| Directed by | Takao Kato |
| Studio | XEBEC |
Buso Renkin (武装錬金, Busō Renkin, literally "Arms Alchemy") is a manga series written and drawn by Nobuhiro Watsuki, the creator of Rurouni Kenshin.
Buso Renkin was serialized in the weekly Japanese manga anthology Shonen Jump, with ten tankōbon volumes in total published in Japan. The series has been licensed by VIZ Media for US release and has been adapted into an anime by XEBEC, which is currently airing in Japan with a planned 26 episodes to be made in total. There are also two drama CDs as well as a novel based on the series.
Story
The story begins when high school student Kazuki Muto (武藤カズキ, Mutō Kazuki) is killed one night saving a mysterious girl from a monster, only to wake up and find it was only a dream. However, he soon finds out how real that dream was when a giant serpentine monster attacks him and his sister. Tokiko Tsumura (津村斗貴子, Tsumura Tokiko), the girl from his dream, explains that the monster is a homunculus. Kazuki had been attacked and killed by it when rescuing Tokiko, however the girl revived him by placing a kakugane medal in his chest.
The kakugane, Tokiko explains, is an alchemical device that when activated can give him the power to fight the homunculus monster. Using this, Kazuki creates his own buso renkin, an alchemical weapon in the form of a huge lance. Along with Tokiko and her own buso renkin, Kazuki joins the fight against the homunculus and their master.
Alchemy
In the world of Buso Renkin, there are two types of alchemy besides the historical one: buso renkin (weapon alchemy) and homunculus.
Buso renkin are weapons formed by the alchemically-created kakugane, based on the user's will to fight. Buso Renkin are the only weapons known to be able to kill a homunculus.
A homunculus is created when an embryo-like creation is placed inside an animal, plant, or human. Animal-type homunculi have strengths related to their animal base, apparently become sentient, and gain the ability to take on a human form. Human-type homunculi do not change form, but merely gain the strength and regenerative powers of a homunculus while retaining their human form. Homunculi frequently eat humans.
Characters
Kazuki Muto
Voiced by: Jun Fukuyama
Kazuki Muto (武藤カズキ, Mutō Kazuki) is a 16 year old boy who attends a private academy with his sister. After becoming involved in Tokiko's fight and subsequently being killed and revived, he is told to simply return to his ordinary life, but instead insists upon assisting Tokiko in her battles. Kazuki is very enthusiastic and friendly, and cares deeply for his friends and sister, tending to put himself in danger or difficulty in order to assist or protect others.
Buso Renkin - Sunlight Heart, Sunlight Heart + (Plus)
His Busou Renkin is now part of his body, acting the part of his heart. Kazuki's Busou renkin takes the form of a spear or lance with a large decorative cloth attached. Its special ability is to transfer Kazuki's emotions into energy with the help of his crimson cloth attached to the Sunlight Heart. When doing so, it glows a bright yellow like the light of the sun, hence the name of the Sunlight Heart. Kazuki holds the Kakugane #70 (LXX)
Tokiko Tsumura
Voiced by: Ryōka Yuzuki
Tokiko Tsumura (津村斗貴子, Tsumura Tokiko) is a 17 year old alchemy warrior that was assigned to take care of a homunculus problem in Kazuki's town. When Kazuki saved her from a homunculus (in actuality, she had the situation under control) she felt a sense of attachment to him and revived him with a kakugane, intending to make sure that he never gets killed again. Tokiko is very dedicated to her job, claiming that she hates all homunculi, and quit going to school in order to be more efficient. She is serious almost all the time, which leads to some awkward situations when with Kazuki and his friends. She is later assigned to be a student at Kazuki's school by Captain Bravo.
Buso Renkin - Valkyrie Skirt
Tokiko's buso renkin, the Valkyrie Skirt, takes the form of four scythe-like blades that attach to her legs. She is capable of using them a number of ways, from attacking numerous enemies at once to using them to boost her jumps and cushion her landings. The name comes from how, in stand-by mode, the blades fold up and, in her school outfit, her skirt resembles that of a Valkyrie.
Koshaku Chono (Papillon)
Koshaku Chono (蝶野攻爵, Chōno Kōshaku) is a genius student from Kazuki's school and was meant to be heir to the Chono family fortune. However, he is also deathly ill and has had to repeat a year of school due to the amount of time he has needed to spend in the hospital. Upon discovering a 500 year old research diary from his great-great-grandfather he learned of alchemy and the process of making homunculi, experimenting with various animals first before turning himself into a human-type homunculus, renaming himself "Papillon".
As Papillon, he is flamboyant and reckless. He appears in public wearing his mask and in revealing or outlandish outfits, apparently oblivious to or possibly enjoying the stares of bystanders. After his initial defeat at the hands of Kazuki, he teams up with the homunculus Dr. Butterfly, his still-living great-great-grandfather.
Buso Renkin - Neardeath Happiness
Papillon's buso renkin, when activated, is a black powder that typically takes the form of a pair of butterfly wings on his back. He also can create a number of small butterflies from it which explode on impact and that he can use offensively.
Alchemy Warriors
Captain Bravo
Voiced by: Masashi Ebara
Captain Bravo is Tokiko's commander and dresses in an outfit that covers every inch of his body except for his eyes. Though the main characters assumed this was to protect his identity, Bravo actually has no qualms with showing his real appearance when he acts as Kazuki's dorm supervisor. He claims that he doesn't use his real name because its cooler that way, and acts as a father figure for Kazuki. True to his name, the captain has a tendency to say "Bravo" when applauding someone. His outfit is actually his buso renkin, called Silver Skin. Upon impact from an attack, his outfit hardens into a regenerating metal, and in addition to all this, Bravo has immense physical strength. Later it is revealed that the Silver Skin has another ability, which is named reversed wearing (银皮反穿). This ability is used on the opponent to restrict his/her moves, rendering the victim defenseless against Bravo's powerful physical attacks.
Buso Renkin - Silver Skin
Double - Silver Skin: Another Type
Gōta Nakamura
The junior of Tokiko, who has a big crush on her and dislikes Kazuki a lot. Despite this, he, Kazuki and Tokiko join forces together to find out the truth of Black Kakugane. Gōta is a strategic planner and fights with variations of his Buso Renkin
Buso Renkin - Motor Gear
Motor gear is a pair of chakram. It can be used for both short and long range attacks.
Negoro Shinobu
Buso Renkin - Secret Trail
Maruyama Madoka
Hiwatari Sekima
Captain Bravo's former teammate and one of the Alchemy Commander. He is the leader of in charge of Muto-assassination. Has a bad temper.
Buso Renkin - Blaze of Glory
Ikusabe Genji
Buso Renkin - Geki-Sen
Homunculus and Allies
Dr. Butterfly
Dr.Butterfly (Dr．バタフライ, Dr.Batafurai) is Chono Koshaku/Papillon's still-living great-great grandfather, and is also the leader of LXE (League of eXtraordinary Elects). His original name was Chono Bakushaku (蝶野爆爵). He has a butterfly-shaped mustache.
Buso Renkin - Alice in Wonderland
Moon Face
Buso Renkin - Satellite 30
Ōka Hayasaka
Ōka in the twin sister of Syusui. Unlike her brother, she is polite to others. Angel Gozen refers to the automatic doll that shoots arrows for Ōka, her Buso Renkin includes a glove in the right hand and a bow. The doll is able to shoot a massive amount of arrows. Angel Gozen was unable to speak until Bravo turned on the sound mechanism. The glove is able to shoot an arrow that absorbs the wound of the target.
Buso Renkin - Angel Gozen
Shusui Hayasaka
Shusui is Ōka's twin brother. His buso renkin is able to absorb any kind of energy that touches it.
Buso Renkin - Sword Samurai X
Victor
Victor is also known as the "Back-stabbing Warrior". Originally, Victor had a standard Buso Renkin kakugane but was given an experimental black kakugane, created by his wife Victoria. The power of the black kakugane was too much and the other Renkin warriors fought and almost destroyed Victor. He somehow managed to get to Doctor Butterfly who promised to restore him.
Buso Renkin - Fatal Attraction
Others
Schoolmates
Mahiro Muto: Voiced by: Aya Hirano. Mahiro is Kazuki's younger sister. She is a ditsy girl that likes to try on various outfits--the main reason she joined Kazuki's school was because she liked the uniform. While some people may think that she is forced to drink bad-tasting health drinks by her brother (due to ambiguous images in the manga version of the series), in the anime one can see that she, in fact, enjoys drinking those beverages.
Okakura: Okakura is the resident pervert and is one of Kazuki's friends.
Daihama: Daihama is one of Kazuki's friends.
Rokumasu: Rokumasu is a strange boy who is inexplicably skilled in many areas, often leading people to wonder exactly who he is, and is one of Kazuki's friends. Some of these skills include voice imitation, Lip reading and intricate knowledge of kendo techniques.
Publishing History
Buso Renkin ended in the Japanese Weekly Shonen Jump 2005 No. 21/22. The 10th and final tankōbon volume was released on 4 April 2006, possibly due to relatively poor fan response, especially when contrasting to the late Rurouni Kenshin, the author's most famous work.
VIZ Media has released the first official volume in English on August 1, 2006.
In Japan on October 4th of 2006, the Buso Renkin manga was adapted into an anime series. It runs on TV Tokyo.
The July 2006 issue of Shonen Jump U.S. featured a 53 page preview of the manga, ie. the first chapter, with the first 5 pages in color. The US version of Rurouni Kenshin Volume 28 (the final volume) contained a sneak preview of Buso Renkin
Voice Cast
Japanese
- Jun Fukuyama as ... Kazuki Muto (武藤カズキ, Mutō Kazuki)
- Ryōka Yuzuki as ... Tokiko Tsumura (津村斗貴子, Tsumura Tokiko)
- Aya Hirano as ... Mahiro Muto
- Hitomi Nabatame as ... Ouka Hayasaka
- Kishō Taniyama as ... Syusui Hayasaka
- Masashi Ebara as ... Captain Bravo
- Mitsuaki Madono as ... Koshaku "Papillon" Chono
- Tomokazu Seki as ... Moon Face
Episodes
| No. | Episode Title[1] | Airdate | |
|---|---|---|---|
Trivia
- Kazuki is playable in the Nintendo DS game Jump Superstars. Tokiko, Papillon, and Captain Bravo also appear in the game. Kazuki appears again in the sequel, Jump Ultimate Stars.
- When Kazuki draws a picture of what Papillon Mask is supposed to look like, the resulting artwork resembles that of Hirohiko Araki, the creator of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure another Shonen Jump title.
- In volume two, while bedridden from a homunculus infecting her, Tokiko is wrapped in bandages by Kazuki's sister in a way that makes her resemble Shishio Makoto, a major villain from the author's earlier work Rurouni Kenshin.
- In volume three (also seen in the 7th episode of the anime), a subordinate homunculus uses a Buso Renkin called Peaky Gulliver. The name of his attacks and the Buso Renkin itself is based on Gulliver's Travels.
- An odd snail makes at least four apperances in each volume. In Vol. 1, it appears on a t-shirt and as a computer decoration. In Vol. 3, it appears on the TV "technical dificalties" screen and at "Freak Burger" as a toy.
- The name of Shusui Hayasaka's Buso Renkin, Sword Samurai X, is named after the English OVA title for Rurouni Kenshin: Samurai X. Watsuki has insisted that he has always liked the name "Samurai X" in an author's note of volume four.
Links
- Template:Ja icon XEBEC's Official Buso Renkin Site
- Template:Ja icon Buso Renkin Website
- Template:En icon Anime News Network Buso Renkin Section
- Template:Ja icon TV Tokyo's Official Buso Renkin site
Japanese editions
-
volume 1
VIZ Manga
-
volume 1
-
volume 2
