# Bari Bari Densetsu

Bari Bari Densetsu (Japanese: バリバリ伝説, Hepburn: Bari Bari Densetsu, lit. 'Vroom Vroom Legend') is a Japanese motorbike racing-themed manga series written and illustrated by Shuichi Shigeno. It was serialized in Kodansha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Magazine from 1983 to 1991, with its chapters collected in 38 tankōbon volumes.
Earlier parts of the story focus both on high school life as well as street racing. At first the characters are illegal street racers (Japanese: hashiriya) that race on public roads, particularly on the winding mountain roads known as tōge. Those kind of racers were called "rolling-zoku", a type of bōsōzoku, and were seen as a social problem in Japan. Later parts of the story revolve around professional motorcycle racing events held on road circuits like the All Japan Road Race Championship.

## Characters
### Gun Koma (巨摩 郡, Koma Gun)

    Voiced by: Hideyuki Tanaka
    A motorcycle racer, he rides a Honda CB750 as well as a Suzuki GSX-R.

### Ai Itou (伊藤 歩惟, Itō Ai)

    Voiced by: Yōko Oginome
    Gun's girlfriend.

### Hideyoshi Hijiri (聖 秀吉, Hijiri Hideyoshi)

    Voiced by: Ryūsei Nakao
    Gun's friendly rival, he rides a Suzuki Katana.

### Hiro Okita (沖田 比呂, Okita Hiro)

    Voiced by: Issei Futamata
    Gun's best friend, he rides a Kawasaki Z400GP.

### Miyuki Ichinose (一ノ瀬 美由紀, Ichinose Miyuki)

    Voiced by: Keiko Toda
    The daughter of the Ichinose Racing Team president, she is in love with Hiro and rides a Honda VT250F.

### Tomoyo Hijiri (聖 知代, Hijiri Tomoyo)

    Voiced by: Akiko Hiramatsu
    Hideyoshi's sister, she lost her parents in car accident.

## Media
### Manga

Written and illustrated by Shuichi Shigeno, Bari Bari Densetsu was serialized in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine from March 9, 1983, to July 17, 1991. Kodansha collected its chapters in thirty-eight tankōbon volumes, released from October 14, 1983, to August 6, 1991.

### Volume list

| No. | Release date | ISBN |
| 1 | October 14, 1983 | 978-4-06-172922-3 |
| 2 | November 14, 1983 | 978-4-06-172932-2 |
| 3 | December 12, 1983 | 978-4-06-172937-7 |
| 4 | March 15, 1984 | 978-4-06-172955-1 |
| 5 | May 15, 1984 | 978-4-06-172970-4 |
| 6 | July 16, 1984 | 978-4-06-172977-3 |
| 7 | September 13, 1984 | 978-4-06-172990-2 |
| 8 | December 10, 1984 | 978-4-06-173010-6 |
| 9 | February 12, 1985 | 978-4-06-173022-9 |
| 10 | May 14, 1985 | 978-4-06-173044-1 |
| 11 | July 10, 1985 | 978-4-06-173053-3 |
| 12 | November 14, 1985 | 978-4-06-173085-4 |
| 13 | February 12, 1986 | 978-4-06-173120-2 |
| 14 | July 10, 1986 | 978-4-06-173155-4 |
| 15 | September 10, 1986 | 978-4-06-173176-9 |
| 16 | November 13, 1986 | 978-4-06-173190-5 |
| 17 | February 10, 1987 | 978-4-06-311211-5 |
| 18 | May 11, 1987 | 978-4-06-311236-8 |
| 19 | July 10, 1987 | 978-4-06-311256-6 |
| 20 | September 7, 1987 | 978-4-06-311273-3 |
| 21 | November 9, 1987 | 978-4-06-311291-7 |
| 22 | February 8, 1988 | 978-4-06-311312-9 |
| 23 | May 2, 1988 | 978-4-06-311342-6 |
| 24 | July 8, 1988 | 978-4-06-311361-7 |
| 25 | October 11, 1988 | 978-4-06-311387-7 |
| 26 | February 10, 1989 | 978-4-06-311419-5 |
| 27 | April 12, 1989 | 978-4-06-311436-2 |
| 28 | July 13, 1989 | 978-4-06-311465-2 |
| 29 | October 11, 1989 | 978-4-06-311490-4 |
| 30 | February 8, 1990 | 978-4-06-311525-3 |
| 31 | April 14, 1990 | 978-4-06-311548-2 |
| 32 | June 14, 1990 | 978-4-06-311569-7 |
| 33 | August 11, 1990 | 978-4-06-311587-1 |
| 34 | November 15, 1990 | 978-4-06-311613-7 |
| 35 | February 14, 1991 | 978-4-06-311637-3 |
| 36 | April 15, 1991 | 978-4-06-311655-7 |
| 37 | June 10, 1991 | 978-4-06-311675-5 |
| 38 | August 6, 1991 | 978-4-06-311705-9 |

### OVA

A two-episode original video animation (OVA) adaptation produced by Pierrot, Part I: Tsukuba and Part II: Suzuka, was released in 1986. The episodes were later re-edited and released in theaters in August 1987 by Nippon Herald (now part of Kadokawa Pictures).
A Blu-Ray version was released in Japan on July 21, 2023.

### Video games

Two video games were released:
* Bari Bari Densetsu - FM-7 (1985)
* Bari Bari Densetsu - TurboGrafx-16 (1989)
Gun Koma also appears as a guest character in Namco's MotoGP (2000) video game, based on the 1999 season.

## Reception

In 1985, it won the ninth Kodansha Manga Award for the shōnen category. As of April 2018, collected tankōbon volumes of the Bari Bari Densetsu manga series had over 26 million copies in circulation.
Japanese motorcycle racer Shinya Nakano credited his use of the number 56 throughout his career to Gun Koma also using the same number in the road racing portions of the manga.