Ask John: Which Manga Have the Most Adaptations?
Question:
What manga have received the most adapted remakes? Besides Tezuka stuff like Astro Boy and Black Jack, the only ones I can think of are Negima (2 TV series, a live action series and a number of OVA) and Guyver (a single animated movie, a 12 episode OVA series, a TV series and 2 live action films).
Answer:
If the goal is to consider separate adaptations rather than total number of episodes or installments, my first instinct is to say that Shigeru Mizuki’s GeGeGe no Kitaro has more adaptations than any other manga title. The original Hakaba Kitaro manga and its more successful reboot, GeGeGe no Kitaro, have been the basis of six different anime television series, ten anime feature films, and two live-action movies, not to mention GeGeGe no Kitaro characters also appearing in the live-action Shigeru Mizuki no GeGeGe no Kaidan TV special.
The Galaxy Angel franchise has spawned seven TV series plus a stage musical.
Takuya Mitsuda’s baseball manga series Major has six anime TV series, two OVAs, an anime feature film, plus a few recap specials.
Mitsuteru Yokoyama’s 1956 Tetsujin 28-gou manga has had five separate anime television series plus a live-action feature film and a stage play. The Sailor Moon manga also inspired five anime TV series with a sixth on the way, three anime feature films, an OVA, a live-action TV series, and numerous stage plays.
Shuichi Shigeno’s Initial D manga has four TV series, three OVAs, an anime feature film, a live-action feature film, and another TV series and anime movie currently in development.
Monkey Punch’s 1967 Lupin III manga has inspired four anime television series plus the Lupin VIII television series that never completed initial production, seven anime theatrical features, a live-action theatrical film, a Flash anime OVA series, three additional OVAs, and 24 semi-annual TV movies.
Hojo Tsukasa’s City Hunter manga has inspired four anime TV series, an anime feature film, three TV movies, two OVAs, a live-action movie, and a Korean live-action TV series.
Natsume Yujincho has had four anime TV series plus two OVAs.
The Doraemon manga by “Fujiko Fujio” has had three different anime television series, 34 feature films, ten short films, eleven spin-off films, and a stage musical. A variety of other manga titles likewise have three anime TV series, among them: Himitsu no Akko-chan (along with two movies), Ah! Megami-sama (plus 3 OADs, an OVA series, and a feature film), Aria (plus one OVA), and Captain Tsubasa (plus 4 movies and 2 OVA productions)
Franchises including Cyber Formula, Ojamajo Doremi, and Pretty Cure have had five or more television series, and the .Hack franchise has had three TV series, five OVA series, and a feature film, but these and similar titles were not based on manga.
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Going off the top of my head…
Ah! My Goddess has lead to four OAVs (the original 5-episode OAV and three more recent ones), one movie, two anime seasons, and the Adventures of Mini-Goddesses spin-off anime.
Ghost in the Shell resulted in three movies, two full seasons, a few compilation OAVS, with a prequel anime series in the works.
Clamp’s Card Captor Sakura manga was made into a three-season anime, as well as two movies and a couple OAVs. The main characters from the CCS manga were also used as main characters in the Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles manga, which itself lead to an anime series, movie, and two OAVs. Not to mention, the Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles cast has made cameos in many of the other Clamp manga/anime, such as XXXHolic and Kobato.
I’m sure there are even more examples out there of manga being made into multiple anime adaptations, but that’s all I’ve got for now.