Kyūkyoku Chōjin R (究極超人あ～る) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masami Yuki. It was serialized in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday from 1985 to 1987. The series revolved around a teenage robot named R. Ichiro Tanaka. Later, it was revealed that R's creator Dr. Narihara only built R for a failed attempt to take over the world.

Characters

Media

Manga

Kyūkyoku Chōjin R, written and illustrated by Masami Yuki, was serialized in Shogakukan's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Sunday from August 7, 1985, to July 22, 1987. Shogakukan collected its chapters in nine tankōbon volumes, released from January 18, 1986, to August 18, 1987. The manga was re-published in five bunkoban volumes, released from March 17 to July 17, 1998. The manga was also re-published in four wideban volumes, released between August 10 and November 9, 1991. An additional volume was published on August 9, 2018.

Volume list

Original video animation

An original video animation (OVA) was released by Bandai Visual on September 26, 1991. The plot features R and the Camera Club going on a stamp tour throughout Japan, the tour agency being owned by Marii's family, who added the threat of the Camera Club being closed down unless they could collect all the stamps by 6:00 pm. The OVA was re-released on DVD on July 25, 2001.

Soundtrack

On March 21, 2007, Columbia Music Entertainment re-released 4 Image albums (CDs) for the series, based on the original LP released from the mid-eighties. There were Drama Special, Anime Original Karaoke, Manatsu no Ichiyazuke and Kyukyoku Chojin R Box, which featured the entire cast of characters either singing, performing radio dramas, or the female voice actors performing songs based on the series.

Other media

R was one of the characters used for the PlayStation Portable game, Sunday VS Magazine: Shuuketsu! Choujou Daikessen!, which is used to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Shogakukan's Shōnen Sunday and Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine manga magazines.

Reception

In 1988, Kyūkyoku Chōjin R received the Seiun Award for the best comic of the year.