Kekko Kamen

Kekko Kamen (Japanese: ã'っã"う仮面, Hepburn: Kekkō Kamen) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Go Nagai. It was serialized in Monthly Shōnen Jump from September 1974 to February 1978, with the chapters collected into five tankōbon volumes by Shueisha.

It follows the misadventures of a student named Mayumi Takahashi who attends a boarding school called Sparta Academy that is run by sadistic psychopaths. The teachers are constantly looking for ways to torture or humiliate the students, and from this the teachers derive sexual satisfaction. Takahashi's only protection is from a mysterious nude female superheroâ€"the titular Kekko Kamen. The manga has spawned an original video animation series and numerous live-action films. In North America, the OVAs were released by ADV Films, while several of the films were published by different distributors.

="Plot">Plot

First-year student Mayumi Takahashi attends a junior high school called Sparta Academy (スãƒ'ルタ学åœ', Suparuta Gakuen), where the penalty for any student (usually girls) making the slightest mistake is being sexually humiliated by the perverted, corrupt and misogynistic teachers running the school, the principal being a demonic, jester-like villain named "Toenail of Satan". However, before the teachers can take their sexual advances too far, Kekko Kamen steps in and delivers a sound beating to the teachers, and usually performs a finishing attack by jumping into the air and landing crotch-first onto her opponent's face.

Characters

Kekko Kamen (ã'っã"う仮面, Kekkō Kamen)

A practically nude female superhero dressed only in a red, rabbit-eared mask, with matching gloves, scarf, and boots. She uses her body to distract the usually male enemy teachers that she fights in order to protect Sparta Academy's unfairly punished and harassed students, but, typically, she ends up coming to the defense of Mayumi Takahashi. She fights with a graceful and acrobatic martial arts style, as well as often using weapons to aid her, such as nunchuks and a bo staff. Her finishing move, the Oppiroge Jump (おっぴろã'ジャンプ, "Pubic Hair Jump"), involves her leaping into the air, spreading her legs, and landing groin-first on her typically male opponent's face, which knocks him out. The possibility of an outside intruder is ruled out, and the principal and faculty thus conclude that one of the students is the masked heroine.

Voiced by: Emi Shinohara (Japanese), Christine Auten (English)

Mayumi Takahashi (高橋真å¼", Takahashi Mayumi)

A first year student at the Sparta Academy. Mayumi is an innocent and good natured girl, but her failure to meet the school's high academic standards the often land her in the school's torture chamber, where she is subjected to humiliating punishments. However, before the teachers are about to completely violate her, Kekko Kamen always manages to burst in and save the day. Her heroine's constant rescuing of her has filled Mayumi with a deep amount of affection for her, but she is often used by the principal and faculty as bait to lure Kekko Kamen into a trap.

Voiced by: Arisa Andō (Japanese), Monica Rial (English)

Toenail of Satan (サタンの足の爪, Satan no Ashi no Tsume)

The main villain and wicked principal of Sparta Academy, who dresses in a fearsome white demon mask and jester hood. He is extremely perverted and obtains satisfaction from sexually humiliating the female student body, especially Mayumi Takahashi. This brings him into conflict with Kekko Kamen, whose secret identity he wishes to uncover, and who he wants to destroy. To accomplish this, he exhorts various punishment councillors into publicly humiliate Takahashi, using her as bait to bring the naked warrior of justice out in the open, but she always defeats him.

Voiced by: Jōji Yanami (Japanese), Rob Mungle (English)

Teacher Ben (べン先ç"Ÿ, Ben-sensei)

A perverted, insane, abusive, sadistic, mad scientist teacher who works for Toenail of Satan. He always punishes Mayumi Takahashi for her substandard grades, but always gets defeated by Kekko Kamen every time he attempts to do so.

Voiced by: Mitsuaki Hoshino (Japanese), Chris Patton (English)

Chigusa Yuka (結花千草, Yūka Chigusa)

A shy, introverted second year student. When Mayumi sees her bare body during an examination intended to unmask Kekko Kamen, her reaction shows that she believes Chigusa is Kekko Kamen, and the principal and faculty move against Chigusa, but Chigusa is ruled out as a suspect when Kekko Kamen appears and taunts the principal and the faculty. However, Chigusa actually does have a secretâ€"she is actually two people, the twins Chigusa and Yuka. When their secret is discovered, the twins are tortured and accused of being Kekko Kamen, but they are again cleared of suspicion when Kekko Kamen arrives to save them and Mayumi.

Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue (Japanese), Kira Vincent-Davis (English)

Keiko Natsuwata (夏綿ã'い子, Natsuwata Keiko)

A tough, popular Physical Education teacher, and an expert at various styles of fighting techniques, sports, and with many types of weaponsâ€"this caused the principal to suspect that she was actually Kekko Kamen, and began to humiliate her. She ceased being a suspect when Kekko Kamen jumped in to rescue her.

Koichi Omote (面光一, Omote Kōichi)

A supposedly first year male student, who is in the same class as Mayumi. However, another student uncovered that "he" was actually a female in disguise. This prompted the Principal to believe that she was Kekko Kamen. When her true gender was unveiled, Keiko suddenly rushed in to save her, and confessed that she was Koichi's older sister. Both sisters were then tortured until Kekko Kamen came to their rescue. After this revelation, Koichi continued to be a valuable friend and ally to Mayumi.

Ai Sakai (é…'井愛, Sakai Ai)

A young student who is positively infatuated with Kekko Kamen, and is inspired to become a heroine of justice herself. So, armed with a rapier, she becomes the mostly nude, caped, swashbuckling hero with a ribbon covering her crotch known as Ribon no Shishi (リボンの獅子, "Ribbon Lion"). However, on her first attempt to combat the evil of the school, Ai finds herself in danger. Fortunately, Kekko Kamen comes to her rescue. After this incident, Ai continued to appear sporadically throughout the manga as a supporting character.

Kaori Wakatsuki (若月香ç¹", Wakatsuki Kaori)

The very attractive school nurse. After Kekko Kamen's thigh is injured in a battle, the villain traces her to the infirmary, and confronts Kaori, ripping off her clothing in an attempt to find the scar, only to realize it wasn't there. Kekko Kamen then appeared with a bandage on, rescuing her, and eliminating her as a suspect.

Kei Kurenai (紅恵, Kurenai Kei)

A red-haired, chain smoking, tough as nails third year student and gang leader who makes sure everyone knows their place when dealing with her, and hardly comes to class. When seeing Kei walking away from her, Mayumi is reminded of someone else, but she quickly dismisses the thought.

Production

Kekko Kamen is a female superhero whose costume consists solely of red boots, gloves, scarf and a mask with long bunny-like ears. Her fighting style is graceful, and her finishing move involves driving the opponent to the ground with a flying headscissors takedown which presses her groin into the victim's face.

Kekko Kamen is a parody of Gekko Kamen. It was originally a joke that Nagai sent to his editor expecting him to reject it. His editor, however, loved the idea and that started Kekko Kamen. As well as the similarity in name, both Kekko Kamen's and Gekko Kamen's true identity is never revealed. Even the name of the main antagonist is a parody: in Gekko Kamen it is Claw of Satan (サタンの爪, Satan no Tsume) while in Kekko Kamen it is Toenail of Satan (サタンの足の爪, Satan no Ashi no Tsume). The theme song for the Kekko Kamen character, uses the same lyrics for the theme song to Moonlight Mask, but with changes.

Media

Manga

Kekko Kamen was originally serialized in Shueisha's magazine Monthly Shōnen Jump, from September 1974 (1974-09) to February 1978 (1978-02).

The series has been compiled several times by Shueisha and other publishers. It is also available in ebook format, published by ebookjapan. The manga was published in two volumes in Italy by d/visual, on December 22, 2006 and July 30, 2010.

Shueisha (Jump Comics, 1976â€"1978)

Shueisha (Jump Comics Deluxe, 1990)

Kadokawa Shoten (Kadokawa Bunko, 1996)

Kodansha (Kodansha Comics Deluxe, 2003)

Leed Publishing (SP Comics, 2004)

Original video animation

A four-episode original video animation adaptation of Kekko Kamen was created by Studio Signal and released by Nippon Columbia on two VHS tapes in 1991 and 1992. A DVD collection was released on April 21, 2001. The first two episodes were directed by Nobuhiro Kondo and the second two by Kinji Yoshimoto. The opening theme song is "Kekko Kamen no Uta" (ã'っã"う仮面の歌, Kekkō Kkamen no Uta, "The Song of Kekko Kamen") which Go Nagai wrote for the manga, with composition and arrangement by Keiju Ishikawa, and sung by Emi Shinohara. The ending theme is "Morodashi Heroine Kekko Kamen" (モロダシ・ãƒ'ロインã'っã"う仮面, Morodashi Hiroin Kekkō Kamen, "Naked Heroine Kekko Kamen") written by Hiroshi Koenji, composed and arranged by Keiju Ishikawa, and sung by Emi Shinohara.

The OVA series was released in the United States subtitled in English on two VHS tapes by ADV Films on February 7 and April 4, 1995. A single DVD version was produced on February 15, 2005, which beside the subtitles, also included dubbed English audio. ADV Films has also re-released Kekko Kamen in bundled DVD packages with other anime; Cutey Honey/Kekko Kamen on April 1, 2008, and Puni Puni Poemy/Kekko Kamen on April 21, 2009. The OVA was also released in a dubbed version in Italy on VHS by Dynamic Italia in 2000 under the name Kekko Kamen: La maschera libidinosa.

Episodes

Live-action films

There have been eleven live-action films based on Kekko Kamen. Go Nagai has been intricately involved in the production of the films. The first three movies and the three from 2006 were released in direct-to-video format, while films four through seven and eleven were theatrically released in Japan. The first four theatrical films were released on DVD in North American by Media Blasters' Tokyo Shock label beginning in 2005.

• Kekko Kamen (ã'っã"う仮面)(1991)
• Kekko Kamen 2 (ã'っã"う仮面ï¼')(1992)
• Kekko Kamen 3 (ã'っã"う仮面ï¼")(1993)
• Kekko Kamen: Mask of Kekkou (ã'っã"う仮面 MASK OF KEKKOU)(2003) also known in English as Kekko Kamen New
• Kekko Kamen: Mangriffon no Gyakushu (ã'っã"う仮面 マングリフォンの逆襲)(2003) known in English as Kekko Kamen: The MGF Strikes Back
• Kekko Kamen Returns (ã'っã"う仮面 RETURNS)(2004)
• Kekko Kamen Surprise (ã'っã"う仮面 SUPRISE)(2004)
• Kekko Kamen Royale (ã'っã"う仮面 ロワイヤル)(2006)
• Kekko Kamen Premium (ã'っã"う仮面 プレミアム)(2006)
• Kekko Kamen Forever (ã'っã"う仮面 フォーエバー)(2006)
• Kekko Kamen Reborn (ã'っã"う仮面 æ–°ç"Ÿ)(2012)

Sequels

Kekko Kamen P (ã'っã"う仮面P, Kekkō Kamen P) is a manga series written by Shigemitsu Harada and illustrated by Seiju Minato and published in Weekly Young Magazine from 2003 to 2004. The chapters were collected into two tankōbon volumes by Kodansha on May 6 and July 6, 2004. It is a sequel to the original series, where several years have passed since the events depicted in the first manga. Momoka Nogami discovers the legend of the original Kekko Kamen and decides to emulate her actions donning a similar costume, adding a peach motif, and so she becomes Kekko Kamen Peach. Other Kekko also appear, Kekko Kamen Lemon and Kekko Kamen Melon, and even a male version called Kekko Kamen Banana.

A special story called "The Excellent - Kekko Kamen Gaiden" (THE エクセレント ～ã'っã"う仮面外伝～), written by Shinobu Inokuma with co-operation from Nagai, was published in Business Jump in June 2011. It takes place many years after the original manga where a new Kekko Kamen, whose secret identity is a new teacher in a new school owned by the remaining factions of the Toenail of Satan, protects young female students from the evil members of the organisation unfortunately one of them catches her. She is held prisoner until the original Kekko Kamen rescues her and they both defeat him, with the original telling her successor that some of the remains of the Toenail of Satan may have spread all over the world and that she will keep on fighting alone but she was proud of her successor that if she's gone she and her successors after her will always protect the young female women from evil by using her namesake.

A one-shot crossover featuring Go Nagai's Kekko Kamen and Mazinger Z characters was written by Takeshi Okano and published in Grand Jump on January 16, 2013.

Reception

Stig Høgset of Them Anime Reviews gave the Kekko Kamen OVAs two out of five stars, called the art passable, and clarified that while the jokes are smutty, they never get offensive.

Reviewing for Anime News Network, Theron Martin wrote "Kekko Kamen is great (if nonsensical) fun as long as you're an adult who can appreciate oodles of fan service and raunchy, sometimes utterly tasteless, humor." He cited the humor as a highlight, but felt the production values were mediocre.

Martin gave a much more negative review of the live action Kekko Kamen: Mask of Kekkou (also known as Kekko Kamen New), saying it came off as "exploitive and cruel rather than the campy, whimsical work it should have been." He called the writing amateurish and the acting even worse.

Angel Blade is a hentai parody OVA of Kekko Kamen produced in the Vanilla Series.

American heavy metal musician Rob Zombie used clips of the Kekko Kamen OVA during the 2010 Mayhem Festival tour during the song "Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy)".

References

External links

• Kekko Kamen at the World of Go Nagai fansite (Japanese)
• Kekko Kamen (OVA) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia