| Wing-Man | |
| Ja Kanji: | ウイングマン |
| Ja Romaji: | Uinguman |
| Genre: | Science fantasy Superhero[1] |
| Type: | manga |
| Author: | Masakazu Katsura |
| Publisher: | Shueisha |
| Demographic: | Shōnen |
| Imprint: | Jump Comics |
| Magazine: | Weekly Shōnen Jump |
| First: | January 4, 1983 |
| Last: | August 27, 1985 |
| Volumes: | 13 |
| Type: | tv series |
| Dream Soldier Wing-Man | |
| Director: | Tomoharu Katsumata |
| Music: | Keiichi Oku |
| Studio: | Toei Animation |
| Network: | ANN (TV Asahi) |
| First: | February 7, 1984 |
| Last: | February 26, 1985 |
| Episodes: | 47 |
| Developer: | TamTam |
| Publisher: | Enix |
| Genre: |
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| Platforms: | NEC PC-8801, Fujitsu FM-7, Sharp X1, MSX |
| Released: | 1984 |
is a Japanese science fantasy manga series written and illustrated by Masakazu Katsura. It was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1983 to 1985, with the chapters collected into 13 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha.
Wing-Man is the story of Kenta Hirono, a fan of superheroes and sentai television shows to the point where he dreams of becoming such a hero himself. To that end, he creates a superhero of his own called "Wingman," and, much to the chagrin of his teachers, acts out his fantasies of being Wingman at school. When Kenta meets Aoi Yume, the beautiful blue-haired princess of an alternate universe called Podreams, he gets his chance to make his fantasy come true, as Aoi carries a book called a Dream Note which can make any dream come true, and Kenta draws a picture of Wingman in the book, allowing him to become Wingman for real. Kenta, Aoi and Kenta's classmate and love interest, Miku Ogawa, team up to save Podreams from the evil dictator Rimel, who wants to use the Dream Note to take over Podreams, while Kenta deals with his conflicting feelings for both of his female compatriots.
Kazuhiko Torishima, the editor who discovered Masakazu Katsura, said he was disappointed when the artist told him he wanted to draw a transforming superhero manga.[2] He explained that science fiction works in television with its special effects, but it does not come across visually in manga. So Torishima proposed making it a school story involving girls and asked him to make the main character more realistic and familiar to readers.[2]
The manga was adapted into an anime television series titled in 1984, produced by Toei Animation and airing on TV Asahi. Featuring character designs by Yoshinori Kanemori and intended by Toei Animation to be a strong shōnen title following the female-targeted Ai Shite Knight, Wing-Man marked the first anime adaptation of one of Katsura's works and the debut role of Ryo Horikawa as Kenta. (Katsura himself would later appear as Wing-Man in a live-action adaptation of Video Girl Ai.) The anime's ending differs from that of the manga, but the manga's ending was dramatized with the anime's voice actors on a drama LP.
The manga was adapted into a 1984 visual novel adventure game also titled Dream Soldier Wing-Man. It was developed by TamTam and published by Enix for the NEC PC-8801 and other personal computers. It featured a point-and-click interface, where a cursor is used to interact with on-screen objects,[3] similar to Planet Mephius (1983)[3] and the Famicom version of The Portopia Serial Murder Case (1985).[4]
On September 2, 2024, a live-action television adaptation of Wing-Man was announced. Co-produced by TV Tokyo, Toei Video, and DMM TV, it began airing on TV Tokyo and its affiliates on October 22, 2024 and was available on the DMM TV streaming service starting October 16.[5] Maito Fujioka and Konatsu Kato will star as Kenta Hirono and Aoi Yume respectively with Ultraman, Kamen Rider & Super Sentai veteran Koichi Sakamoto as the director, "Chang[e]" by Blue Encount will be the show's opening theme song.[6]
To promote the series, Konatsu Kato was featured in a pictorial in her Aoi Yume costume for the release of the 46th issue of Weekly Young Jump, which was released on October 17, 2024.[7]