| Silver Fang: The Shooting Star Gin | |
| Ja Kanji: | 銀牙 -流れ星 銀- |
| Ja Romaji: | Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin |
| Type: | manga |
| Author: | Yoshihiro Takahashi |
| Publisher: | Shueisha |
| Imprint: | Jump Comics |
| Magazine: | Weekly Shōnen Jump |
| First: | December 12, 1983 |
| Last: | March 23, 1987 |
| Volumes: | 18 |
| Type: | tv series |
| Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin | |
| Director: | Tomoharu Katsumata |
| Producer: | Kazuo Yokoyama |
| Music: | Gorō Oumi |
| Studio: | Toei Animation |
| Network: | ANN (TV Asahi) |
| First: | April 7, 1986 |
| Last: | September 22, 1986 |
| Episodes: | 21 |
| Sequel | |
| Content: | |
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Takahashi. It was published in Shueisha's 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.[1] 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 series.
A sequel manga by Takahashi, titled Weed, was published from 1999 to 2009, with four other series following since.
See also: List of Silver Fang characters.
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The TV series was produced by TV Asahi and Toei Animation, with Tomoharu Katsumata serving as series director, Mitsuru Majima and Kenji Terada writing the scripts, Jōji Yanase designing the characters, and Gorō Oumi composing the music. It was broadcast every Monday from 19:30 to 20:00 (Japan Standard Time) on TV Asahi affiliate stations from April 7 to September 22, 1986, for a total of 21 episodes. The anime adaptation ended with the Akakabuto arc, and the Hakkenshi arc was not produced. In addition, the development of the last half of the story is simplified, with some dogs lacking any lines and their appearances reduced compared to the original manga. Takayuki Miyauchi performed both the opening and ending themes, "Nagareboshi Gin" and "TOMORROW".
It received the 1987 Shogakukan Manga Award for best series.[2]