![]() And while Moritou’s manga was presented through the eyes of a target reader-aged avatar of sorts in the form of Akira Katagai, Shintaku’s manga tended to only cast humans as part of the story backdrop and chose to keep things focused on the Micromen themselves–and furthermore often starred characters based upon figures which never appeared in Moritou’s saga (such as the M111 and M122 type figures) as well as some other Microman toys that never made it to the TV Magazine series. ![]() What the Bouken Oh Microman manga lacked in page count and art quality, it made up in regularity–the manga series ran monthly without interruption for 62 consecutive issues, from February of 1976 through March of 1981 (actually continuing a fair bit later than Moritou’s series). TV Magazine also had similar giveaways, but this one was featured directly at the end of Bouken Oh’s manga each month. Often fifty lucky winners would get a brand new, just-released figure, while the ten luckiest would get a larger prize such as a Robotman. The manga also was accompanied with a monthly contest where lucky participants could win the latest Microman figures and toys. Also Shintaku’s art style was clearly not on par with Moritou’s, albeit filled with a lot of character. While that version featured irregular but lengthy installments (often about 60 pages per installment!), often featured prominently ln pack-in supplement volumes and with lots of educational tie-in content and large advertisement spreads, the Bouken Oh version was more of a “filler” manga, usually only four to six pages each chapter, while the toy ads were more often limited to single splash page appearances. This particular presentation of Microman, though, was quite different from the more famous TV Magazine version from Moritou. And while a licensed manga series started in Kodansha’s TV Magazine January of 1976 by Yoshihiro Moritou that would become known as one of his most popular works and later even further integrated into the main and later canon of the toys, it was not the only manga adaptation licensed during this period.Ī rival magazine, Bouken Oh ( Adventure King) from Akita Publishing, also started a Microman manga series the following month, penned by Yoshimistu Shintaku.īouken Oh (1949-1983, name changed to TV Anime Magazine until ending in later in 1984) was a good home for the series, often featuring manga tied in with popular programming for young boys such as tokusatsu heroes, super robots, and SF anime, with a number of well-known manga artists contributing regularly over the years. The Microman line of toys was a breakaway hit for Takara after its debut in 1974. Tiny Titan Microman: the “Lost Adventures” - Year One (1976)
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