Two years after the manga ended, it received an anime adaptation, directed by Tameo Kohanowa. The anime ran from 20 October, 1983 to 29 March, 1984 and spanned 24 episodes.
Kabamaru Igano was orphaned at a young age. He was raised by his grandfather, Saizo Igano, to be a skilled ninja, alongside another orphan named Hayate Kirino. On the day of his grandfather's funeral, Kabamaru learns that one of the guests, Ran Ookumo, knew his grandfather and he asked that she care for him should he ever die. It turns out that Ookumo is the headmistress of Kin'gyoku, an elite school, and Kabamaru is to enroll there. He doesn't know it, but Kin'gyoku is actually at odds with the rival school Ōgyoku - the heads of their student councils (Shizune Meijiro and Shuu Meijima, respectively) have been feuding for a long time, and Mejiro can't wait to use Kabamaru as a pawn for it...
Complicating matters further is that Kirino now rejects Kabamaru as a brother and tells him that they actually had no such bond. Kirino, now working with Ōgyoku, has resigned himself to the mountains, aloof from everyone's presence. Kabamaru wants to do his best for Kin'gyoku, but also cares for his once-best friend, and feels at a loss. His other struggles include adjusting to the urban lifestyle as a raggedy Country Mouse.
Reading the synopsis, you may think this manga is a prototype to Naruto. You'd be right, but Ninja stories of this kind are actually very common in Japan. That doesn't change the fact that there are some quite uncanny parallels, like the main character fighting against his friend-turned-foe, believing he can bring him back to the side of good, his Abhorrent Admirer status to the girl he likes, and the complicated politics of the system around him. Many who grew up with it describe it as "Naruto meets Ranma ½, but STUPID".note
In 1983, Igano Kabamaru received a Live-Action Adaptation directed by Suzuki Norifumi. The lead, Kabamaru, was played by Teru Kurosaki with Junya Takagi (Hayate), Hiroyuki Sanada (Shizune), Kumiko Takeda (Mai), Naomi Morinaga (Kaoru) in supporting roles. It was directed by Shinishi Chiba and grossed $1.4 Billion Japanese yen.
After 32 years, Yū Azuki broke her silence about the series and announced she was drawing a sequel manga, titled Igano Kabamaru★Sorikara.
Not to be confused with the similarly named Iga No Kagemaru by Mitsuteru Yokoyama.
Has examples of:
- The '60s: You can clearly tell this anime takes place in the 60s-early 70s Japan because of the pop culture references (Tono, for example, calls Shigeo Nagashima one of his favourite baseball players) and the cars.
- Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Meijima is the Student Council head and his family is an absurdly large conglomerate with business ties all over the country; Meijima himself lives in a Big Fancy House and has many servants and valets.
- Adaptational Badass: Futaba Meijiro (Shizune's older sister) uses nunchucks in the anime adaptation, whereas in the manga she wasn't inclined to any weapon.
- Adaptation Deviation:
- In the manga, Kirino had no problem fighting Kabamaru for Ōgyoku. In the anime, Suu makes him do it.
- In the original manga, Mai's glasses-wearing best friend had a crush on Kabamaru, whereas in the anime she sees Mai's crush on Kabamaru and supports him.
- Adapted Out:
- Luxurious Banquet was adapted out of the anime version, but appeared in the live-action version.
- Many of Kabamaru's childhood friends in the manga are adapted out of the anime series.
- Alternate Character Reading: Kabamaru misreads Kaoru Nonogusa's name as "sniff" (because of the kanji).
- Alternative Foreign Theme Song: Igano Kabamaru has an Arabic opening
and a Greek opening. - Bound and Gagged: Happens to Mai when she goes to the Ōgyoku Academy to try and stop the fighting, only to be taken herself.
- Canon Foreigner: Mikizura (the old man at the yakisoba shop) wasn't in the manga.
- Cartoon Physics: Anytime Kabamaru is around food, he turns into a full-on gonk, his mouth turns as wide as a plate, and he tosses the food-mid air as it lands in his mouth...regardless of how hard he throws it.
- Christmas Episode: One episode is set during Christmas Eve, and focuses on Ran's love life.
- Coming of Age Story: The manga begins with Kabamaru leaving his old home behind, and becoming an unwitting pawn in the schemes of Shizune Meijiro, while coping with the loss of the man he grew up with as a brother.
- Driven to Suicide: Hoshiko Wakabayashi always dreamed of being a painter, but when she found out that, due to a series of differing circumstances, that she could never become one, she attempted suicide, only for Igano to rescue her. Eleven years later, we see Hoshiko after the Time Skip - she's fulfilled her dream.
- Dub Name Change: In the French dub, Kagamaru became Benjamin and Mai became Agnès.
- Fanboy: The Kendo club team captain is so obsessed with the sport that he practices special techniques based on the kendo manga he reads.
- Flowers of Romance: When Kabamaru sees Mai for the first time, he's struck with her beauty and then has an Imagine Spot of her surrounded by flying pink and white roses.Kabamaru: "My-my face is getting hot! My heart's beating so fast! Why? Why?"
- Gonk: Many a commoner in the village Kabamaru grew up in are fat, short and utterly cartoonish. When Ran enters for the first time, her and Kabamaru look like they're of Nonstandard Character Design compared to them.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: For all his Book Dumb tendencies, Kabamaru can read the Chinese inscriptions on his grandfather's tablets.
- Gratuitous Princess: Remember Khalil, the messenger for the Meijiro family? He's actually the Prince of Lovalde.
- Hong Kong Dub: When the series was dubbed in Greek, the frequent mouth flaps posed a problem to the Greek dubbing team, so they tried to fill this in with the repetition of phrases, as well as swearing. Part of why Greek audiences remember it for it's
charm. - Incest Subtext: Ran states on the day that she brings Kabamaru home that him and Mai are to be siblings. Though Kabamaru has a crush on her, Mai is so disgusted that she runs out of the room crying. Kabamaru continues to have feelings for her despite being told that she's his sister, and eventually, in the end, Mai admits that she reciprocates his feelings.
- Leg Focus: The cheerleaders at Kin'gyoku wear very skimpy, skintight outfits and their routines involve showing off their right legs.
- Love Triangle:
- Kabamaru, Shuu Meijima and Derek have feelings for Mai Ookumo, Principal Ookumo's granddaughter.
- Even Saizo Igano was quite the ladies man. In his youth, he captured the hearts of Ran Ookumo and Suu Matsuno; they eventually stopped being friends over their rivalry for him.
- Official Couple: It takes a lot of arguing, thumping and complicated situations....but eventually, Kabamaru/Mai.
- Phenotype Stereotype: With a few exceptions, most of the characters have pale to olive-brown skin, and dark, thin, black hair.
- Scenery Porn: The backgrounds of this anime are very beautifully drawn. See here◊.
- Sensual Spandex: The cheerleader uniforms are skimpy, orange, skin-tight suits that cover the upper chest/torso but nothing of the legs, and have frilly armbands.
- Shōjo: Yes, believe it or not, this proto-Naruto series about two ninja boys is a shojo. It ran in a shojo magazine and the large number of cast Pretty Boys is possibly to appeal to a female audience. The Only Sane Woman is Mai (who's likely meant to be a stand-in for female readers) and her romance with the title character is a key part of the story.
- Shout-Out: The school's baseball captain names Shigeo Nagashima and Sadaharu Oh as his favourite players (two Real Life Japanese baseballers who are affiliated with the Giants).
- Token White:
- While most of the students look phenotypically Japanese (even Mai, who's a redhead - Japanese redheads are rare, but actually do exist), Kaoru Nonogusa has long, wavy blonde hair and blue eyes, but nothing is said of her origins.
- The Gladforce family, who are British. There's Anthony, who's distantly related to Kabamarunote (and a dead ringer for him) and Derek.
- Women Are Wiser: Averted and played straight - Ran and Suu are just as dumb as their male counterparts, whereas Mai and Kaoru are surprised by the stupidity of everyone around them. .
- World of Technicolor Hair: Played straight in the manga, where characters have blue or purple hair, but downplayed in the anime adaptation where characters have blonde or red hair despite being Japanese.
