Rokudenashi Blues

Infobox animanga/Header
name = Rokudenashi Blues


caption =
ja_name = ろくでなしBLUES
ja_name_trans =
genre = Sports, DelinquentInfobox animanga/Manga
title =
author = Masanori Morita
publisher = flagicon|Japan Shueisha
demographic = Shōnen
magazine = Shōnen Jump
first = 1988
last = 1997
volumes = 42

nihongo|"Rokudenashi Blues"|ろくでなしBLUES|Good-For-Nothing Blues Is a manga about high school delinquents in Tokyo, Japan, drawn and written by Masanori Morita, and serialized in Shōnen Jump in Japan. While very popular in Japan, it has yet to be released in English.

tory

The story stars nihongo|Taison Maeda|前田太尊|Maeda Taison, delinquent student of nihongo|Teiken High|帝拳高校|, who wishes to become the World Boxing Champion. The manga follows Maeda (and his friends and rivals) as he struggles through 3 years of high school while becoming one of the strongest and best known high school fighters in all of Tokyo. Not just a pure action manga, Rokudenashi Blues is filled with humor and well-crafted story arcs about honor, friendship and the pressures of being a delinquent student in Japan. Short gag-stories with chibi versions of characters are published as 'Rokudenashi Buru-chu'.

Characters

; nihongo|Taison Maeda|前田太尊|Maeda Taison : The main character of the story, he's a famous delinquent in Teiken High, known for his passion of Boxing, street fighting, and his moped, Chavez. Albeit being a delinquent, being easily angered and stupid at times (He punched a professor when he heard the girl's uniform changed), he has a sense of honor and respect, and values his friends greatly. Taison is also known as one of the Tokyo's elite 4s, and aims to become the world champion in boxing. Taison has an interest for Chiaki Nanase. His name is based on wrestler Akira Maeda and former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. He lives with his brother in the Honky Tonk apartment complex. Him and his older brother both left the south of Japan for Tokyo to avoid inheriting their father's profession, that of a monk.

;nihongo|Chiaki Nanase|七瀬千秋|Nanase Chiaki : An intelligent, beautiful and emotional girl that's the complete opposite of Taison, she cares deeply about him.

; nihongo|Katsuji Yamashita|山下勝嗣|Yamashita Katsuji: One of Maeda's best friends. Gets extremely angry whenever someone mentions his wide forehead. While the only one with a proper girlfriend in the series, they constantly fight and bicker, each accusing the other of infidelity.

; nihongo|Yoneji Sawamura|沢村米示|Sawamura Yoneji : One of Maeda's best friends. Gets extremely angry whenever his large nose is mentioned. Had a crush on Chiaki early on in the manga but never really did anything because he knew Taison liked her. Despite his appearance as a deliquent, he is excellent at school, getting full marks on most tests. His girlfriend lives in the south of Japan.

; Hatanaka: A very skilled boxer who attends Teiken High, he is attempting to secure a place in the Olympics. Him and Maeda come to blows, with Maeda knocking him out with a wrestling move. However, when people begin to question the authenticity of the win due to Maeda being two weight categories heavier than Hatanaka and him not fighting in a straight boxing match Maeda forces Hatanaka to fight him again. This time Hatanaka easily defeats the emaciated Maeda. He leaves Teiken for several months to train at boxing in a prestigious school. He is very easy-going and cheerful, but can be moved to anger. He is one mistake away from being expelled from Teiken High.

; nihongo|Wajima|# 輪島倍達|:The leader of the Cheering Squad. He is recognized for his moustache, large frame and strong tolerance towards alcohol. At the start of the manga, the Cheering Squad and Boxing Squad were in the middle of a feud, but this was quickly sorted out by Taison and his friends. He is twenty years old, having to continuously repeat his final year.

; Mutou:Member of the Cheering Squad. Mutou is recognizable from his large scar under his right eye. This was accidentally self-inflicted when Mutou rubbed away tears when his hand was bandaged with a blade. When he was younger, he had a large, comical afro.

; nihongo|Matsumura|松村純之助|

; nihongo|Kazumi Imai|今井和美|Imai Kazumi :Chiaki's best friend and Katsuji's girlfriend. She can be a bit ditzy at times.

; Sakamura:One of Maeda's longer running adversaries. They met when Sakamura crashed his car into Maeda's, inadvertently saving his, and his friends lives from an oncoming train. Mistaken identity later led the two to become enemies. A long running joke in the manga is that Maeda and Sakamura always meet by helping the other out, only to fight when they realize who it is they are dealing with. Maeda always calls Sakamura "Sakashit". He is a strong fighter, coming 2nd place in the Japanese High School Judo Finals. While he should be in his final year at Yonekura, he had to repeat 2nd year due to poor grades.

Movies

Anime

Rokudenashi Blues

*Distributor: Toei
*Released: 1992
*Cast
**Taison Maeda: Hideyuki Hori
**Chiaki Nanase: Yoshino Takamori
**Katsuji Yamashita: Masaya Onosaka
**Yoneji Sawamura: Ryō Horikawa
**Kazumi Imai: Miki Itō
**Koeji Nakata: Yūsaku Yara
**Sorimachi: Shigeru Chiba
*Director: Takao Yoshizawa
*Screenplay: Yoshiyuki Suga
*Music: Yasunori Iwasaki

Rokudenashi Blues 1993

*Distributor: Toei
*Released: 1993
*Cast
**Taison Maeda: Hiroaki Hirata
**Chiaki Nanase: Sanae Horikawa
**Koeji Nakata: Kazuki Yao
**Monson Maeda: Shōzō Iizuka
**Fujio Maeda: Yūsaku Yara
**Yōkō Maeda: Ryō Horikawa
**Haruka: Junko Hagimori
**Naoto Watanabe: Ryūsei Nakao
**Hironari Komiyama: Hiroyuki Satō
**Junichi Nakajima: Yasuhiro Takato
**Ioka: Tesshō Genda
**Hikaru Midorikawa, Tsutomu Kashiwakura, Hideo Ishikawa, Daisuke Gōri, Yuriko Yamamoto, Megumi Urawa, Naoki Tatsuta, Kenichi Ono, Kazunari Tanaka, Kyōsei Tsukui, Shinobu Satouchi, Hideo Tanise, Yūko Nagashima, Mariko Onodera, Wakana Yamazaki
*Director: Hiroyuki Kakudou
*Screenplay: Yoshiyuki Suga, Shunichi Yukimura
*Music: Kimio Nomura

Live Action

Rokudenashi Blues

*Distributor: Pal Entertainments Group (PEG)
*Production: Pony Canyon, TV Tokyo, PEG
*Released: 1996
*Cast
**Taison Maeda: Kensaku Maeda
**Chiaki Nanase: Maju Ozawa
**Seikichi Harada: Junichi Kawamoto
**Hiroshi Shimabukuro: Ryūshi Yanagisawa
**Mitsuru Kizuka: Giant Jun
**Kazumi Imai: Yukari Obata
**Katsuji Yamashita: Yoshinori Umemoto
**Yoneji Sawamura: Teruhide Kimura
**Koheji Nakata: Yuji Hirata
**Hiroyuki Otomo: Ken Inaba
*Director: Hiroyuki Nasu
*Screenplay: Midori Kogane, Yoshiyuki Suga

Rokudenashi Blues '98

*Distributor: PEG
*Released: 1998
*Cast
**Taison Maeda: Kensaku Maeda
**Chiaki Nanase: Moe Yamaguchi
**Kazuya Yuki: Yūsuke Shinuchi
**Katsuji Yamashita: Shu Ehara
**Yoneji Sawamura: Masaki Nishimori
**Kazumi Imai: Rie Fukaumi
**Hiroto Oba: Osamu Takizawa
**Nakata Yoheji: Yuki Tanaka
**Hiroyuki Otomo: Yōji Sasaki
**Hironari Komiyama: Tōru Kaneko
**Misaki-sensei: Kaori Ōhara
**Barber: Takashi Matsuyama
**Teacher: Kazuyoshi Ozawa
*Director/Screenplay: Atsushi Muroga
*Music: Gorō Yasukawa

CD Book

An audio drama CD released by Shueisha in 1991.

Cast

*Taison Maeda: Kōichi Yamadera
*Chiaki Nanase: Sakiko Tamagawa
*Katsuji Yamashita: Issei Futamata
*Yoneji Sawamura: Kenyū Horiuchi
*Kazumi Imai: Yūko Mizutani
*Yutaro Hatanaka: Bin Shimada
*Hamada: Nobuyuki Furuta
*Hidekazu Ohashi: Yoku Shioya
*Masutatsu Wajima: Yukitoshi Hori
*Shokei Muto: Ken Yamaguchi
*Masahiko Kondo: Daisuke Gōri
*Prinicpal: Kōzō Shioya
*Girl: Yumi Tōma