Bari Bari Densetsu
Bari Bari Densetsu is a Japanese motorbike racing-themed manga series written and illustrated by Shuichi Shigeno. It was serialized in Kodansha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Magazine from 1983 to 1991, with its chapters collected in 38 tankōbon volumes.
Earlier parts of the story focus both on high school life as well as street racing. At first the characters are illegal street racers that race on public roads, particularly on the winding mountain roads known as tōge. Those kind of racers were called "rolling-zoku", a type of bōsōzoku, and were seen as a social problem in Japan. Later parts of the story revolve around professional motorcycle racing events held on road circuits like the All Japan [Road Race Championship].
Characters
;Gun Koma;Ai Itou
;Hideyoshi Hijiri
;Hiro Okita
;Miyuki Ichinose
;Tomoyo Hijiri
Media
Manga
Written and illustrated by Shuichi Shigeno, Bari Bari Densetsu was serialized in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine from March 9, 1983, to July 17, 1991. Kodansha collected its chapters in thirty-eight tankōbon volumes, released from October 14, 1983, to August 6, 1991.Volume list
OVA
A two-episode original video animation adaptation produced by Pierrot, Part I: Tsukuba and Part II: Suzuka, was released in 1986. The episodes were later re-edited and released in theaters in August 1987 by Nippon Herald.A Blu-Ray version was released in Japan on July 21, 2023.
Video games
Two video games were released:- Bari Bari Densetsu - FM-7
- Bari Bari Densetsu - TurboGrafx-16
Reception
In 1985, it won the ninth Kodansha Manga Award for the shōnen category. As of April 2018, collected tankōbon volumes of the Bari Bari Densetsu manga series had over 26 million copies in circulation.Japanese motorcycle racer Shinya Nakano credited his use of the number 56 throughout his career to Gun Koma also using the same number in the road racing portions of the manga.