Blue Zone (ブルー・ゾーン) is a manga by Shotaro Ishinomori, serialized in Weekly Shonen Sunday in 1968.
Plot[]
Jun Nikogami, who grew up in an orphanage, inherits a huge fortune from his father on his 18th birthday. At the Nikogami residence, he learns about the Blue Zone, which his father was researching. When the orphanage where Jun grew up, The Land of Light, is blown up, Jun decides to fight the monsters from the Blue Zone.
Characters[]
- Jun Nikogami
- Doxer
- Grandpa
- Rina Hirokoji
- Ninjin
- Yacchin
- Rina's parents
- Dr. Tatsuya Nikogami and his wife, present as spirits that can possess others
- Yoko Nikogami, Jun's older sister who can also possess others
- Genjiro Ashigaki, leader of the Dark Magic Brigade
- Romy, the attack android of the Dark Magic Brigade
- Bugaloo, Romy's hound
Serialization[]
- Weekly Shonen Sunday: February 4th (#6) to July 14th, 1968 (#29)
Blue Zone was an unpopular title in the magazine and was rushed to a conclusion, with Ishinomori killing off many characters (while others, like Rina, had disappeared from the story beforehand) and having Tatsuya Nikogami sacrifice himself to destroy Romy. All the mysteries set up in the title are left unresolved by this quick, dramatic end.
The original magazine ending listed this chapter as the "final episode of Part 1", with Ishinomori urging readers "Now, everyone, please lend a hand to Jun", indicating he had interest in resuming the story and wanting fans to send in letters of support. Unfortunately, unlike some other works Ishinomori revisited, a "Blue Zone Part 2" never happened.
Remake: "Blue Zone The Demon World in the Sky"[]
(BLUE ZONE 天空魔界)
A remake effort written by Jun Ujitani and illustrated by Mizuki Sakura (Studio Ash) was published in Vol. 7 of Neo Fantasy magazine (June 30, 1992). The debut chapter, "The Mystery of OOParts", would unfortunately be the only one to be published as Neo Fantasy was discontinued and none of its series were resumed anywhere.
Related Works[]
Agartha: Legend of the Stars[]
As with this work, Shotaro Ishinomori himself appears as a character and the male character Shun Kuroki is an assistant to him much like Jun Nikogami was.
Shotaro's Fantasy World Jun[]
Jun Nikogami is a re-use of the Jun character, other than initially not having his hair covering his eyes (and having him look more like Rokube as a result). While the Jun in that title aspires to be a manga artist, this Jun has already achieved becoming an assistant.
Genma Wars[]
As with Blue Zone, this series has the theme of a battle between monsters from another world vs. esper humans who awaken their powers.
The Monster Alliance[]
Another series involving young people having to awaken special abilities in order to fight evil.
Cyborg 009[]
The "Immigration" arc recycled Jun's design for that of the Commander, a descendant of 009 and 003. Rina's design, though modified, was also utilized for the time-traveler Rina.
Some may note that while the Rina in 009 evolved to look more like her early Blue Zone design, the Rina in Blue Zone wound up inexplicably having the face and hairstyle of 003 by her last few appearances, other than her bangs being different.
The Commander would appear once more, with a modified design, in the final story-arc in the 1980s, though he would die as a result of the plot developments.
009-1[]
Mylene Hoffman/009-1's design, after art evolution, is believed to be the source of Romy's design due to the striking similarities with their faces and hairstyles. Romy, however, is an android and not a cyborg.
Trivia[]
- While never revisited by Ishinomori in his lifetime, the Mangattan Museum pays homage to the title by naming its cafe "The Blue Zone Cafe".
- Blue Zone is one of the series believed to hold hints and themes as to what Ishinomori hoped to utilize in his final chapter of Cyborg 009. Unfortunately, Blue Zone was doomed by poor reception and unlike 009, never had the chance to be revisited and have its own true conclusion told.