Bastard!!: Heavy Metal, Dark Fantasy is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kazushi Hagiwara. It first appeared in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump, in March 1988, and continues to be published irregularly in Ultra Jump. Its individual chapters have been compiled into 27 tankōbon volumes as of March 2012. Kazushi Hagiwara is an enthusiastic fan of heavy metal music and Dungeons & Dragons, using ideas from both of these in the Bastard!! story. Many characters and places in the story, for instance, are named after members of Hagiwara's favorite bands. The manga was adapted into a six-part original video animation series by AIC, released from August 1992 to June 1993. The manga was published in English by Viz Media. Only volumes 1–19 have been translated, with no plans to release the rest. The OVA was released in North America by Pioneer in 1998. Bastard!! is one of Weekly Shōnen Jump's best-selling manga seriesof all time, with over 30 million copies sold by 2008.
Overview
In Bastard!!, the Kingdom of Metallicana is attacked by the Four Lords of Havoc. This prompts the high priest to ask his daughter to awaken Dark Schneider, a wizard and former leader of the Riders, from within the body of 14-year-old Luche Renren. Bastard!!s history is about sorcery, revenge, and other power struggles in a Dungeons & Dragons–like world. It is a dystopian world, where people need magic to survive against wild beasts, and evil monsters. There are four kingdoms, each one the protector of one of the four seals that keep the God of Destruction in stasis. While the first half of the manga follows most a theme similar to Dungeons & Dragons scenarios, it later also focuses on aspects such as beliefs, morals and religions.
Characters
; / ; ;Geo Noto Sort/Soto ;Sean Ari ;Kai Harn ;Diamond/Di-Amon
Media
Manga
Bastard!! is written and illustrated by Kazushi Hagiwara. The series was first published in the 1988 14th issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump, released on March 14, 1988, and ran on a regular basis in the magazine until the 1989 36th issue, published on August 21, 1989. The first tankōbon volume was published in August 1988. In 1990, the series was switched to the Weekly Shōnen Jump Specials quarterly magazine, and the series started to be published on an irregular basis. The series was later transferred to Ultra Jump magazine, starting it serialization in the 2001 1st issue, published on December 19, 2000. The manga is published in the magazine on an irregular schedule. The series has been compiled into 27 tankōbon volumes as of March 2012. Shueisha re-released the series in a new kanzenban-like edition entitled Bastard!! Complete Edition, which updates Hagiwara's artstyle, improving his backgrounds, screentone and includes redrawing of some characters. Volumes were released from December 2000 to December 2009. In 2014, Shueisha released a nine-volume bunkoban edition published from May to September. In North America, Viz Media announced the license of Bastard!! in July 2001. The Viz edition is based on Bastard!! Complete Edition. Viz edition differs in a few ways from Japan release. Including graphic sexual scenes being censored, the major differences are the changing of place names. The series names places, spells and some people after various heavy metal bands, such as Metallica, Judas Priest, Whitesnake, Anthrax, Megadeth, Venom, Guns N' Roses, and Helloween. Fearing lawsuits, Viz Media took the Japanese transliterations of these band names and changed them somewhat, then transliterating them back to English, e.g., Anthrax became "Anslasax", Iron Maiden into "Aian Meide", and the main city in which the story takes place, Metallicana, was changed to "Meta-Rikana". Viz Media published the first five volumes in a left-to-right edition from August 2002 to December 2003. The volumes were later republished in its original right-to-left version starting from November 2003. The manga stopped its publication after the release of volume 19 in September 2009.
A six-episode OVA series by AIC was released between August 25, 1992 and June 25, 1993. The OVA cover the story up through the Four Lords of Havoc's battle against Abigail. In North America, Pioneer Entertainment released the series into three VHS set tapes with an English dub between August 28 and December 8, 1998. Pioneer re-released the OVA on DVD on June 5, 2001.
