Ask John: What Was the First Shounen Fighting Anime?

Question:
What was the first shounen fighting anime? Nowdays, we pretty much take drawn-out, passionate, martial arts fighting anime like Bleach, Naruto, and D Gray Man as an accepted genre of anime, but have they always been so common? The earliest shounen fighting anime I can recall are the likes of Hokuto no Ken, Dragon Ball (once the tournament fights began), and Saint Seiya, but surely there have to be earlier works, right?

Answer:
Martial arts have been present in anime for nearly as long as anime itself has existed. Ninja anime television series Shonen Ninja Kaze no Fujimaru (1964), Sasuke (1968), and Ninpu Kamui Gaiden (1969) are among the earliest modern anime to extensively use martial arts. But these early series were action/adventure series that depicted martial arts as a key to their protagonists’ survival. These early anime didn’t concentrate on extended one-on-one battles, martial arts tournaments, or the masculine romance of trading blows.

Furthermore, many early martial arts and fighting anime were sports or sports related series rather than fantasy adventure series. Examples include the 1969 pro-wrestling series Tiger Mask, the 1970 anime biography of kickboxing champion Sawamura Tadashi, Kick no Oni, and the 1973 anime biography of karate expert Masutatsu Oyama, Karate Baka Ichidai.

So the earliest production that may legitimately qualify as a “shonen fighting” anime may be Tatsunoko’s 1969 television series Kurenai Sanshiro, titled “Judo Boy” when it was distributed internationally. This series followed the adventures young judo expert Sanshiro Kurenai who traveled on his motorcycle, battling assorted martial artists and villains during his journey to find the martial artist that murdered his father. But Kurenai Sanshiro stands as an anomaly because it didn’t launch a genre of “shonen fighting” anime or have imitators.

Part of the reason why the 1984 Hokuto no Ken anime series is so fondly remembered is because it may stand as the true progenitor of modern “shonen fighting” anime series including Dragon Ball, Otoko Juku, St. Seiya, Shinken Densetsu Tight Road, Yu Yu Hakusho, Flame of Recca, Kinniku-banzuke Kongo-kun no Daibouken, Shadow Skill, Shijo Saikyo no Deshi Kenichi, Kateikyoshi Hitman Reborn, and countless others. Hokuto no Ken wasn’t a sports anime; it was a martial arts fighting anime heavily influenced by Bruce Lee (and George Miller’s 1981 film Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior). Hokuto no Ken may be credited with popularizing the theme of masculine passion expressed through fighting. Hokuto no Ken was also much, much longer than any previous martial arts anime, paving the way for future long running fighting adventure titles like Dragon Ball and St. Seiya. The literal first “shonen fighting” anime is probably Kurenai Sanshiro, but I think that contemporary lengthy, multi-story arc fighting adventure anime for teen boys like Naruto and One Piece really owe their existance to the success of Hokuto no Ken (although Naruto literally draws a lot of its inspiration from the 1982 series Sasuga no Sarutobi, and One Piece owes a lot to 1986’s Dragon Ball).