BeeTV's Tobaku Mokushiroku Kaiji (partially found sound comic adaptation of Nobuyuki Fukumoto manga; 2011-2013)

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Status: Partially Found

BeeTV's Tobaku Mokushiroku Kaiji was a "sound comic" adaptation of the Japanese manga series of the same name by Nobuyuki Fukumoto. It was released on the BeeTV (now dTV) mobile phone-exclusive video distribution service starting November 1st, 2011 and ran weekly for 54 episodes until distribution ended around 2013.[1]

Details

While no video or audio clips of the sound comic ever surfaced since its initial release, some of the information on it can be found through news articles, the scarce Wayback Machine archives of its BeeTV page, and a fan's detailed blog post on the adaption.[2] As "sound comic" implies, the adaptation took pages from the original manga and added various fade and motion effects and voice acting to the panels, not unlike the motion comic adaptation of chapter 1 of Grappler Baki. Masato Hagiwara and Fumihiko Tachiki, voice actors for the main character Kaiji and the narrator in the considerably more well-known anime adaptation of the manga, reprised their roles for the sound comic. The adaptation's theme song was "Pistol" by Acid Black Cherry. A total of 54 episodes were produced, each one covering a single chapter from the manga (exact length unknown), which were posted on BeeTV every Tuesday at 5 AM. Altogether, the adaptation covered the entire "Espoir" arc of the manga, and it is unknown if there were plans to produce more episodes covering the rest of the source material before distribution was ceased.

Availability

The sound comic was never released on home video or TV and was only available on a mobile phone/smartphone video service, making it unlikely that any of the episodes were recorded or downloaded from the service in good quality, if at all. The blog post mentioned above includes YouTube links to a trailer and the first episode of the sound comic, but both videos have since been removed. The adaptation as a whole has been unavailable for viewing for over 5 years now, and with no plans for redistribution or production of more episodes on the horizon.

On April 2nd, 2023, Internet Archive user TableBox129740 retrieved and uploaded the first episode of the sound comic on the Internet Archive. This episode is the only remnant of the sound comic available, and any episodes of the sound comic are highly unlikely to be retrieved or found as years go by. Unbeknownst to most people, however, Internet Archive user Media-Monster had uploaded the episode months prior to the Internet Archive as well. In addition, the episode can be viewable and downloaded on MEGA.

Gallery

The first episode of the sound comic.

References