Kick no Oni

Kick no Oni (キックの鬼ー, Kikku no Oni, lit. Kick Demon), also known as The Demon of Kickboxing, is a manga written by Ikki Kajiwara and illustrated by Kentaro Nakajou. It was based on the life of the kickboxer Tadashi Sawamura.^[2]

Kick no Oni
キックの鬼
Manga
Written by	Ikki Kajiwara
Illustrated by	Kentaro Nakajou
Published by	Shōnen Gahōsha
Magazine	Shōnen King
Demographic	Shōnen
Original run	August 1969 – February 1971
Volumes	6
Anime television series
Directed by	Yoshifumi Hatano
Produced by	Masaharu Eto
Written by	Masaki Tsuji
Music by	Asei Kobayashi
Studio	Toei Animation
Original network	TBS
Original run	October 2, 1970[1] – March 26, 1971
Episodes	26

History

Written by Ikki Kajiwara and illustrated by Kentaro Nakajou, the manga was published in 1969 in the magazine Shōnen King. It received an anime television series in 1970 that ran until 1971 by Toei Animation.^[3] Ikki Kajiwara is known for his other sports manga, one of them, Ashita no Joe, is illustrated by Tetsuya Chiba and was published between 1968 and 1973 in Weekly Shōnen Magazine.^[4] The staff at Toei found it easier to animate Oni after gaining experience with physical contact sports anime Tiger Mask (also written by Kajiwara).^[5]

Plot

The series chronicled the true story of kickboxer Tadashi Sawamura.^[3][6]

In this series, Tadashi Sawamura, was an arrogant karate fighter who was defeated by a kickboxer, leaving Sawamura in a mild coma. Once in the hospital and recovering from the coma, his opponent's kickboxing trainer Noguchi, came to his hospital room and convinced Sawamura to become a kickboxer. To which after some rigorous training, he learned a devastating finishing move: "The Jumping Vacuum Knee" (Shinku tobi hiza geri).^[7]

Cast

• Koji Asakura as Tadashi Sawamura
• Kiyoshi Kobayashi as Osamu Noguchi
• Michiko Nomura as Etsuko
• Minori Matsushima as Youko
• Yuuji Nishimoto as Hideki

References

1. キックの鬼. Toei Animation (in Japanese). Retrieved June 7, 2015.
2. Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy (2015). The Anime Encyclopedia, 3rd Revised Edition: A Century of Japanese Animation. Stone Bridge Press. ISBN 9781611729092.
3. Eduardo Torelli (October 2000). "Anos 70". Revista Henshin! (21). São Paulo: Editora JBC. ISSN 1518-3785.
4. Manga: An Anthology of Global and Cultural Perspectives. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. 2010. ISBN 9781441155696.
5. "キックの鬼 - Toei Animation". Toei-anim.co.jp. Retrieved 2016-10-09.
6. "AnimeFlix". Sunday, 25 September 2022
7. Jonathan Clements, Helen McCarthy (2015). The Anime Encyclopedia, 3rd Revised Edition: A Century of Japanese Animation. Stone Bridge Press. 9781611729092.

External links

• Kick no Oni (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia