(Disclaimer: I do not support dog fighting. I'm solely interested in preserving old manga.)
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This one-shot was first published in the 44th issue of Shonen King in 1972. (October 16th, 1972) - Almost 52 years old in 2024!
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When I found this one-shot, I was actually just trying to confirm that another manga I was collecting actually did conclude in the volume before this one - Information can be sparse and the cover of a magazine very often, won't list all of the magazine's contents. When I received the magazine, I was surprised a new one-shot dog manga had begun in its place. Raid of the fighting Dogs, a 48 page one-shot by Ikeuchi Seiichi, who is one of my favourite artists. A lovely surprise when I wasn't expecting anything at all, and a very undocumented one at that.
I immediately tried to Google the name of this manga to see if it had any existing translations before adding it to my project list, only to find it had no results at all - Not even in Japanese. Three years later it's translated, thoroughly cleaned and uploaded in English, and at the time of writing there are still no google results for the Japanese title - Only the English title we ended up giving it.
Why is this, though? This magazine really isn't a rare one. It can be purchased right now from several sites for around a thousand yen. (Just under $7 USD as of September, 2024.) Why is it so obscure and unknown...?
I imagine one factor is that listings generally simply don't mention that this one-shot is inside the magazine at all. I think it boils down to how this manga is presented on the Mokuji / Table of contents.
I imagine one factor is that listings generally simply don't mention that this one-shot is inside the magazine at all. I think it boils down to how this manga is presented on the Mokuji / Table of contents.
It's pushed down in such a manner that disconnects it from the rest of the listed manga. Other reading material (Non manga - Articles, for example) would sometimes be presented in this way. It almost comes off as a separate bonus publication (Furoku) that got lost, when it's right in the magazine among the pages. It's a shame because I think the ultimate goal of this placement was to better feature the story, especially since it's the only one in the mokuji that has some nice art there.
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In 2021, I ran a poll asking what people would prefer I work on next as a fan translation. To my surprise, this one-shot won the poll. I really thought people would pick something else. So I got to work debinding my old, tattered copy of the Shonen King issue and scanned in the pages. The more I scanned, the more dread sort of began to wash over me... The print job is just dreadful. My typical go-to until then had been better reprints in books that only needed light cleaning - There's none of these for this manga. This is the only place it was ever published, and the print work and paper quality are terrible. If you've read a few of my other entries, I'm certain you've seen me venting about poor quality printing and the amount of one-shots that are stuck in this terrible quality forever.
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Check out how bad the source was in some spots. The ink is struggling to stick to the paper texture so badly:
Pretty bad. Not as bad as some stuff I have from the 60s and 70s, but still pretty dreadful and something I wanted to fix better for a fan translation. Since I really love Ikeuchi Seiichi's work also, I wanted to do his dog art some justice and fix some of the badly printed lines.
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I contacted a friend who helped me use Topaz and Photoshop to clean these pages up. I finished my initial translation, and prepared to clean the pages for typesetting. "This won't take long." I think as I boot up the first page in Photoshop.
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I didn't complete it for over three years!
It was horribly intimidating. Every time I got some progress done in my free time, I learned how to clean the lines just a little better. So, by the time I'd made it to 10/48 pages, I had to start all over again with my newly learned quality standards, and boy did they change a lot as I restored the lines. I probably started over about five times.
After a bit of this on repeat, I was thoroughly put off and began to work on other things. I ended up releasing other works from that poll before this one because it just took so much time to make the pages look decent. So on and off for three years until it was finally complete, I'd do a little work here and there. While I got help with a couple of the pages, I think even by myself this would have gone much quicker had I not been so disheartened by the process. Hopefully in the future some others will want to help restore this obscure stuff, because I sure have a lot of old dog manga on the backburner with no better print.
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The process went as follows. You may see better details by opening the images in a new tab:
3 - I fixed much of the lines and solid black ink. This is the cleaning and redrawing layer only. I also want to note, this was an earlier example and my standards for the cleaning changed a lot since this, so later pages have a lot more on these layers.
4 - Final page, ready for text.
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Each page probably took a minimum of an hour and I probably did one a day at the height of my focus on this project. If you're interested, here's a video of this page getting cleaned. It's sped up a considerable amount, so you don't have to suffer in real time.
In short, the process was a huge pain, but if it got some eyes on the forgotten work of an author that has already passed on, it's always worth it to me. Ikeuchi draws some incredible Tosa faces and action sequences.
Now I've described the process I'll move on to talking about the story.
If you'd like to read Raid of the Fighting Dogs before proceeding, you can read the English release on MangaDex.
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The story follows Takeshi and his adoptive family. It's pretty typical of your 70's animal-centric one-shot. Takeshi is an orphan who has been adopted by a couple that run a ramen shop. His parents were involved in illegal dog fighting when he was a youth and as a teen, he is now displaying some interest in dog fighting too.
(I swear, I've seen this too many times to count now.)
Dad, seemingly having... clarity after slapping his son across the face for not telling him he wanted a Tosa dog, suddenly proclaims he will do the best thing by his son and buy him the BEST Tosa dog. His dad is unbalanced to say the least. They make their way to Tosa in Shikoku to buy a puppy, with the sole condition Takeshi does not use it for fighting.
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This causes Ryuo to awaken as a fighting dog, and he breaks out of his kennel in the night to sharpen his fangs on a tree. The father takes his one condition back - Takeshi can now train Ryuo to fight.
Takeshi wants to get stronger too. This situation seems to wake up something in all three of them. Around this time, Ryuo also gains a white star on his forehead. It's not stated if this is a marking, or a scar - I imagine a scar myself, since it appeared after the attack, but it marks the change in Ryuo.
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1 - The raw was scanned in.
2 - A custom script with Topaz in it, was applied to the page. This works wonders, but it's still so messy.
3 - I fixed much of the lines and solid black ink. This is the cleaning and redrawing layer only. I also want to note, this was an earlier example and my standards for the cleaning changed a lot since this, so later pages have a lot more on these layers.
4 - Final page, ready for text.
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Each page probably took a minimum of an hour and I probably did one a day at the height of my focus on this project. If you're interested, here's a video of this page getting cleaned. It's sped up a considerable amount, so you don't have to suffer in real time.
In short, the process was a huge pain, but if it got some eyes on the forgotten work of an author that has already passed on, it's always worth it to me. Ikeuchi draws some incredible Tosa faces and action sequences.
Now I've described the process I'll move on to talking about the story.
If you'd like to read Raid of the Fighting Dogs before proceeding, you can read the English release on MangaDex.
--
The story follows Takeshi and his adoptive family. It's pretty typical of your 70's animal-centric one-shot. Takeshi is an orphan who has been adopted by a couple that run a ramen shop. His parents were involved in illegal dog fighting when he was a youth and as a teen, he is now displaying some interest in dog fighting too.
This deeply disturbs Takeshi's adoptive father, who responds in a way very typical of this era of manga.
Dad, seemingly having... clarity after slapping his son across the face for not telling him he wanted a Tosa dog, suddenly proclaims he will do the best thing by his son and buy him the BEST Tosa dog. His dad is unbalanced to say the least. They make their way to Tosa in Shikoku to buy a puppy, with the sole condition Takeshi does not use it for fighting.
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They visit five breeders before finding a puppy that Takeshi likes - A runt that he names Ryuo. The runt is being bullied by its older sibling, a darker coloured Tosa dog that was born first.
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These panels are meant to be brutal with the older puppy bullying the younger one, but they all just look like Spot the dog to me, and it humours me. I think it's the chubby cheek lines and silly little eyes.
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The family lives happily together until Ryuo is a little older, when the family is attacked and mugged by some Yakuza thugs. Even sweet, gentle runt Ryuo is attacked by another dog.
This causes Ryuo to awaken as a fighting dog, and he breaks out of his kennel in the night to sharpen his fangs on a tree. The father takes his one condition back - Takeshi can now train Ryuo to fight.
Takeshi wants to get stronger too. This situation seems to wake up something in all three of them. Around this time, Ryuo also gains a white star on his forehead. It's not stated if this is a marking, or a scar - I imagine a scar myself, since it appeared after the attack, but it marks the change in Ryuo.
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The training is not all harsh tough n' rough though, and I appreciate that:
Ryuo swims out after him, simply following. He does not try to get on the boat - I imagine because he wants Takeshi to remain safe and not potentially capsize the boat. The setting sun in the panel tells me they were probably lost at sea for about a day or so, but who knows... Regardless, I found this panel quite heartwarming. I love that Ryuo's internal dialog is included - This is so often omitted in one-shots around dogs and they're typically not given a voice.
We also get a little slice of life about how much the bond means between these two. Two with sad backgrounds becoming each other's family. Takeshi and Ryuo, at the encouragement of Takeshi's father, go training in the ocean since swimming is great for building muscle. Takeshi loses an oar from his boat, and begins slowly drifting out to sea.
Ryuo swims out after him, simply following. He does not try to get on the boat - I imagine because he wants Takeshi to remain safe and not potentially capsize the boat. The setting sun in the panel tells me they were probably lost at sea for about a day or so, but who knows... Regardless, I found this panel quite heartwarming. I love that Ryuo's internal dialog is included - This is so often omitted in one-shots around dogs and they're typically not given a voice.
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A year after this, Ryuo makes his debut and swiftly moves up the ranks until the top dog (Yokozuna) retires and surrenders the title to him. Ryuo is not a weakling any more. He's ready to do anything for Takeshi and that involves being the very best fighting dog.
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I love the sheer terror in some of the expressions Ikeuchi draws:
Ryuo wastes no time. He kills without pause. Kokuryu is no match for him. I think this panel is incredible. All those thick brush strokes, the contrast of pure vitriol and terror combined is so powerful, and the use of white for blood. I just love it. Such a cool piece of art by a very talented artist.
And there it ends - Ryuo becomes the mascot of the ramen shop, and he sits by it to guard it. He doesn't fight any more, nor does Takeshi. Life is seemingly back to simple slice of life.
(And, the main animal character doesn't die in the end... How rare that is, for an older dog one shot...)
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Before I wrap up though, I must share a few panels that I found so interesting. Ikeuchi draws incredible Tosa dogs. You can really tell he's referenced their shapes and movements, and certainly referenced the breed heavily.
(And, just because it made me laugh, this angry puppy Kokuryu panel)
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What this dog is seeing too, and how fearful it is to them, is so well depicted in this panel:
We learn that there are two kinds of dog fighting. The type that competes for titles only - Ozeki, Yokozuna, etc - The legal dog fighting world where it's considered a little more honourable. There is also the underground world of dog fighting that competes only for money - Illegal betting, where the dogs that lose are always outright killed. This illegal underground fighting scene makes millions of yen change hands.
I feel like the etched edges of Ryuo's markings and his sharp eyes do a great job of coming off as terrifying.
We learn that there are two kinds of dog fighting. The type that competes for titles only - Ozeki, Yokozuna, etc - The legal dog fighting world where it's considered a little more honourable. There is also the underground world of dog fighting that competes only for money - Illegal betting, where the dogs that lose are always outright killed. This illegal underground fighting scene makes millions of yen change hands.
Tosa fighting in modern Japan has apparently lost a lot of its popularity, but was it actually like this in the 80s? Was there an 'underground' scene and an 'honourable, public' scene? I have no idea. One thing I found difficult personally was some of the terminology. All of the underground fighting dogs are referred to directly as "Bet dogs". I changed this to "Underground fighting" in general since I thought it captured the English meaning a lot easier than "Bet dogs" but that's the word that was used for the illegal stuff in this one-shot.
Surprise - The king of the underground dog fighting scene is Ryuo's brother, who is named Kokuryu. He's the terrifying beast that bullied Ryuo when he was just a little puppy. Kokuryu has a secret, though - He got strong by being forced to fight a Kendo master, and after six months he killed this human. People speak about this rumour, but his owner never confirms it.
It's still tremendously sad. Kokuryu could have been a good dog in the right hands and many animals are used by humans in similar ways. I'm glad that the manga makes a point of not glorifying the violence of dog fighting, despite it being the main subject matter. It states several times that it is honourless.
Ryuo and Kokuryu, despite being from different worlds, by some unexplained method, are finally brought together in the same ring to see who is the strongest, and there is no messing around.
Ryuo hasn't thought about his brother since he started his happy life with Takeshi.
Ryuo wastes no time. He kills without pause. Kokuryu is no match for him. I think this panel is incredible. All those thick brush strokes, the contrast of pure vitriol and terror combined is so powerful, and the use of white for blood. I just love it. Such a cool piece of art by a very talented artist.
Takeshi is shocked at Ryuo's sheer violence. After this, Ryuo is retired and never fights again. There is no need for fighting any more. Everybody is stronger, everybody is at peace.
I felt this panel was awfully powerful. Just Takeshi and Ryuo and their bond through all the hard stuff. No need to go through any more hard stuff. Time to enjoy life.
I felt this panel was awfully powerful. Just Takeshi and Ryuo and their bond through all the hard stuff. No need to go through any more hard stuff. Time to enjoy life.
And there it ends - Ryuo becomes the mascot of the ramen shop, and he sits by it to guard it. He doesn't fight any more, nor does Takeshi. Life is seemingly back to simple slice of life.
(And, the main animal character doesn't die in the end... How rare that is, for an older dog one shot...)
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Before I wrap up though, I must share a few panels that I found so interesting. Ikeuchi draws incredible Tosa dogs. You can really tell he's referenced their shapes and movements, and certainly referenced the breed heavily.
(And, just because it made me laugh, this angry puppy Kokuryu panel)
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I'm fairly certain there is nothing in the way of fanart, merchandise, or anything else surrounding this one, but if I'm wrong there - Please do let me know!
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