Manga

(cover of the first volume)

# Kishin Douji Zenki Manga

The Kishin Douji Zenki manga series consists of 12 volumes, which were created by Yoshihiro Kuroiwa and Kikuhide Tani.

Their work is based on an ancient Japanese folklore, concerning the adventures of master Ozunu Enno, the legendary Miraculous Great Bodhisattva of Japan, whose lifestory has been passed down from generation to generation via Japanese history books and his Five Demon Warrior Force, a group of five demon gods, including Zenki, Goki, Vasara, Furisu and Hidoku.

Yoshihiro Kuroiwa and Kikuhide Tani released their original work back in 1992 to 1996, where it was serialized in the Shueisha publication's Monthly Shōnen Jump. In 2005, there was a rerelease of the manga which consists of 7 volumes. While they were redrawn in a more modern manga artstyle, they retained the original story.

As the original literation of the Kishin Douji Zenki series, the manga stands in as the official timeline and thus acts the true representation of how the series and its characters were meant to be.

* List of all manga
* Translation notes
* Translations
* Trivia

## List of all manga

* Volume 1 - The Volume: Zenki's Awakening
	+ Original title: 前鬼覚醒の巻 (Zenki kakusei no maki)
* Volume 2 - The Volume: Master of the dark Arts
	+ Original title: 邪術師の巻 (Yokoshima-jutsu-shi no maki)
* Volume 3 - The Volume: Fruit of Possession
	+ Original title: 憑依の実の巻 (Hyōinomi no maki)
* Volume 4 - The Volume: Demon God of Light
	+ Original title: 光の鬼神の巻 (Hikari no kishin no maki)
* Volume 5 - The Volume: Dogfight
	+ Original title: 巴戦の巻 (Tomoe-sen no maki)
* Volume 6 - The Volume: Showdown! Four heavenly Kings
	+ Original title: 対決! 四天王の巻 (Taiketsu! Shiten'nō no maki)
* Volume 7 - The Volume: Decisive Battle! Inugami
	+ Original title: 決戦! 犬神の巻 (Kessen! Inugami no maki)
* Volume 8 - The Volume: Zenki versus Vasara
	+ Original title: 前鬼VSヴァサラの巻 (Zenki VS Vasara no maki)
* Volume 9 - The Volume: Bracelet of Protection
	+ Original title: 護法輪具の巻 (Gohō ringu no maki)
* Volume 10 - The Volume: Goki... gains a new Ability
	+ Original title: 後鬼・・・ 新たなる力の巻 (Goki... aratanaru-ryoku no maki)
* Volume 11 - The Volume: Crimson Wrath
	+ Original title: 紅蓮怒の巻 (Guren ika no maki)
* Volume 12 - The Volume: Ryuuma-Ou-Mikado
	+ Original title: 龍魔大帝の巻 (Ryuuma-Ou-Mikado no maki)

#### **notes**

The above translations were all provided by Semerone, who used the Japanese version
of the manga's coverarts as a base.

### **Chinese version of the manga**

While an official, Chinese translation of the manga exists, it is known to feature badly translated author comment sections, mangled titles and mangled character names.

As such, Kishin Douji Zenki Wikia doesn't recommend it.

If you want to support the original creators of Kishin Douji Zenki Wikia, please buy the original 12 volumes of the Japanese manga of the Kishin Douji Zenki series or its 7 volume rerelease.

## Translation notes

These notes refrence the translated, English titles provided by Semerone in the top entry of the "List of all manga"-section.

### **The Volume of ...**

の巻 (no maki) actually translates to "Volume of ..." (with ... being the context it is referring to), but as it doesn't quite fit with in line with the English grammar, the translator chose to instead add "The Volume:" in front of the titles. This keeps the original meaning intact without ruining the readability of the titles.

-- Semerone

### **Dark arts**

While 邪 (Yokoshima) translates to "evil" or "wicked", it "evil arts" 邪術 (Yokoshima jutsu) just sounds kinda dumb in English and doesn't quite convey the original menaning. Thus, I decided to translate it as "dark arts", which is a more relatable translation for English speaking audiences, as "darkness" is often synonymous to "evil" in the western cultures.

-- Semerone

### **Hyouinomi**

Hyouinomi? Haven't we heard that name before? This one should especially go click in the brains of everyone, who has played Den Ei Rai Bu before and faced the pre-final Anime Sequence Boss!

It turns out, that Hyouinomi, which translatates to "Fruit of Possession", is the actual name of the seeds, that were send out by Karuma.

This naming is present both in the original, Japanese manga and Den Ei Rai Bu.

-- Semerone

### **Tomoe?!**

From what I have seen, the most accurate translation of 巴戦 (Tomoe-sen) would be "dogfight". While the Kanji for "fight" (戦) was clear from the get go, the other one was quite an ordeal.

From my findings, though, 巴 can either mean "dog" or "wolf", maybe even more accurately a "canine". And "dogfight" makes the most sense, as the main theme of Volume 5 is Zenki, Goki, Chiaki and their friends facing off against various members of the Shitennou (四天王) in rapid succession.

"Tomoe-sen" could also be translated as a "brawl" or a "battle royal", but I chose "dogfight" as a direct, but accurate translation, as I think, that the original writers intended this and the pun that goes along with it would get lost, if I chose another translation. The pun being obviously on the "dog"-part, with the Inugami / Dog Deity Roh being the main antagonist of the corresponding ark.

-- Semerone

### **Shin and Kami**

This entry regards the title of Volume 7. While 神 can be both pronounced as "Shin" or "Gami"/"Kami" and both of these translate as "god", only the latter also translates as "deity".

Additionally to this, it depends on the context, whether "Shin" or "Gami"/"Kami" gets used.

For example, demon gods are referred to as Kishin (鬼神) in the series to prevent them to be mistaken for the ogres or oni, that are commonly known in the Japanese mythology.

For the "Gami", there are two examples. The Inugami (犬神) and the Shikigami (式神). These have been commonly translated as deities. With the Shikigami being "Guardian Deities" and Roh mainly going as the "Dog Deity" prince (or "dog god", though this is more the case in the Japanese mythology, and never seen in the Kishin Douji Zenki series).

Now one might wonder, where the "prince" came from... While Roh is mainly referred to as the "Dog Deity" without the prince, the anime often seems to refer to him as the dog deity prince, due to his connection to king Engai, he latter who is only mentioned by name and never appears in the actual series.

The "Kami" pronounciation though, is mainly used in combination with Onna (女), which means "woman". A Megami (女神) is obviously a female deity or goddess. As these don't seem to appear in the series, though, this spelling and pronounciation are unused here.

-- Goki

### **Gohō / Protection**

##### **Gohou ringu / Bracelet of Protection**

While the anime dubs and subs often refer to it as the "Guardian Bracelet", the 護法輪 ("Gohō ringu" or "Gohou ringu") is most accurately translated as the "Bracelet of Protection", with 護法 (Gohō) meaning "protection" and 輪 (ringu) being synonymous for a "ring" or, in this case, a "bracelet".

##### **Gohou kungu / Vajra of Protection**

Something similar can be seen with Ozunu Enno's secret incantations, which are called ごほうクんぐ (Gohō kungu) in the original works, but are most accurately translated as the "Vajra of Protection" or the "Holy Light of Protection".

I assume, that Semerone and Zenki chose to translate them as the "secret incantation of Vajra", though, as its hard to relate to Buddhist terms, if one has little knowlegde on them and as in the games, the "Vajra of Protection" is often presented as a magical scroll. So I think, they did this to give the reader a better grasp on what is going on ingame.

-- Goki

### Ryuuma-Ou-Mikado

While Ryuuma-Ou-Mikado is the character's name, that has been transliterated from the Kanji 龍魔大帝, it might also be translated as the Great Devil Dragon Emperor. Also, in his case, both the transliteration and the translation are correct, just as its the case for the "Inugami" and the "Bracelet of Protection".

Semerone originally chose the translation and called Volume 12 "The Volume: Great Devil Dragon Emperor", though I chose to change this to the half-translation/half-transliteration title "The Volume: Ryuuma-Ou-Mikado" to keep the character's name intact.

She might or might not change this though, whatever if she feels like keeping my version or not.

-- Goki

## Translations

While the manga indeed did receive various offical translations in languages like Chinese, Spanish and Turkish, it was never released on a broader scale as the manga was completely overthrown by widely more popular the anime of the series.

If you want to make a fantranslation, make sure they are non-commercial and based on the original, Japanese text.

While Wonderland Scanning Group is providing the Chinese version under the fair use license, it is known to feature badly translated author comment sections, mangled titles and mangled character names. As such, make sure to NOT use the Chinese version's text as your translation base, as you otherwise might end up confusing yourself and other fans.

English fan translations based on the Chinese text do exist, but they are known to inherit all errors from the Chinese version. Here are some examples of errors present in the Chinese version and its translations:

* **Mistranslated or omitted character names**
	+ For example:
		- Referring to the Jushi only by their elements and profession instead of their actual names
		- Hiki became "Mu", Master Daisoujou became "the Head Master" and Shinsenbou became "Brother Teacher"

* **Various Attacks**
	+ For example:
		- Zenki's Vajura became "the Golden Hammer Strike", despite involving no hammers and Zenki not even owning a hammer in first place
		- Zenki's Diamond Horn became "the Golden Horn" (an error also present in the English translation of the anime)

* **Gender Changes**
	+ For example:
		- Akira/Goki became a girl/women for reasons unknown, despite always being male in the official works

* **Misinformation on the Characters' personalities**
	+ For example:
		- Zenki being referred to either as Chiaki's lover or a sadist
		- Chiaki being misinterpreted as being violent (due to her being too young to understand Zenki's nature and being unable to properly handle him in the original works)
		- Goki being turned into a wuss (due to him showing emotions and genuiely caring about his loved ones in the original works)

Those are only a few of the errors present in the translations, but there might be more.

## Our Translation

To avoid any fan fictions from taking over the wiki and turning it into a mess, a proper and as faithful as possible translation by the admins is being in the works.

Due to us constantly working on any topic related to official Kishin Douji Zenki related content, our translation is progressing in irregular intervals.

Nonetheless, our translation progress is mainly represented in a corresponding blog both updated in English and in German.

## Trivia

### **Font colors and lettering**

While the original, Japanese version of the Kishin Douji Zenki manga sports blue cover text and uses a mixture of Kanji and Furigana, this has been changed for the Chinese version, which sports green cover text and Kanji-only lettering instead.

Same goes for the contents present in the manga, which don't sport any colored text, but feature the same changes concerning the lettering.

While it doesn't seem like a drastic change, it actually drastically effects how the characters are presented and even, in some cases, changes the meanings of the character's or their moves' names, resulting in errors like the famous mistranslations, where Zenki became a "Demon Prince" instead of a "Demon God Child" or the ones, where the "Diamond" or "Vajra" related items became "Golden".

While the former simply was the result of someone omitting the "God" (aka "Shin") due to religious reasons at the time, and the "Prince" resulted from a misspelling of the Kanji for "Child" (aka "Douji"), the latter one happened due to the Kanji "Kongo" having a different meaning in Chinese. More in-depth information on the latter entry can be found in the Diamond Axe's Trivia-tabber.

#### **Minor changes**

Two additional, but much more minor changes are the removal of the Furigana, depicting Zenki's name beneath the Romaji writing at the top and the orb around the volume's number being changed into a square. Also the color of the text beside the volume's number and the color of the number itself were changed to retain an appropriate contrast and readablitily.

The Japanese cover of Volume 1The Chinese cover of Volume 1
## Gallery

All 12 issues of the original release of the Kishin Douji Zenki Manga series*side view*