Kyō Kara Ore Wa!! — BrandWiki

Kyō Kara Ore Wa!!

Kyō Kara Ore Wa!! (今日から俺は!!) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiroyuki Nishimori. It was initially published in Shogakukan's manga magazine Shōnen Sunday Zōkan, running monthly from September 1988 to August 1990. The series was then transferred to Weekly Shōnen Sunday and serialized from September 1990 to November 1997. Its chapters were collected in 38 volumes. A four-chapter manga sequel, titled Kyō Kara Ore wa!!: Yūsha Sagawa to Ano Futari-hen, was serialized in Shōnen Sunday S from November 2018 to February 2019 and collected in a single volume.

Kyō Kara Ore Wa!! was adapted into a 10-episode original video animation (OVA) series by Pierrot, released from April 1993 to December 1997. The series also spawned a V-Cinema direct-to-video live-action series launched from 1993 to 1997, and a live-action film, featuring the same cast and staff from the V-Cinema series, premiered in February 1994. A Japanese television drama adaptation was broadcast on Nippon Television in 2018, and a live-action film, featuring the same cast and staff from the drama, premiered in July 2020.

By March 2018, the Kyō Kara Ore Wa!! manga had over 40 million copies in circulation.

Story

Two boys, Takashi Mitsuhashi and Shinji Itō, meet each other at a salon. It turns out both boys are transferring to a new school and they decide to take the opportunity to reinvent themselves, to no longer be the run-of-the-mill high school students they used to be, and become the greatest delinquents in Japan.

Characters

Nanyou High

Takashi Mitsuhashi (三橋貴志)
A sly high school student. He gave up his ordinary school life and decided to "become a delinquent from today on", after moving to his new home in Chiba. Being a very athletic person, he used his talent for the sole purpose of brawling and actually becomes a real delinquent. To make his appearance more noticeable, he dyed his hair blond. Being the most self-centered person in the story, his own safety comes before anyone else's, he often sacrifices his "friends" for his cause. He is greedy and cunning. Although, beneath his devilish personality lies a softer side, which shows from time to time, especially when he is angry. His fighting style is based around his speed, as he dodges most attacks, becoming surprised whenever he is forced to block due to being faster than most of the people he encounters. His love interest is Riko Akasaka.
Shinji Itō (伊藤真司)
A complete reversal of Mitsuhashi, Itō is the kind of righteous person fighting for justice. Just like Mitsuhashi, Itō got transferred to Nan High's first year. Like his personality, his fighting style is also the opposite of Mitsuhashi's; he is incredibly tough and often stands up from any beating, even in the bleakest of situations. While he may be as strong as Mitsuhashi, Itō is beat up much more often than Mitsuhashi due to often sacrificing himself to protect others as well as fighting fair in unfair situations or against numerous opponents. Due to helping her, he wins the affection of Kyōko, an ex-delinquent girl, at the start of the series.
Riko Akasaka (赤坂理子)
The only daughter of the Akasaka style dojo. Originally she visited another senior high school than Mitsuhashi and Itō, but ultimately decided to transfer to Nan High instead to repay Mitsuhashi's favor. Behind her pretty looks lies someone pretty skilled in Aikido; she can handle most delinquents on her own despite her small body size. While she used to be very popular at her old school, in Nan High she is initially considered "weird" because of her constantly hanging out with Mitsuhashi. She spends more and more time with Mitsuhashi, and he sometimes intrudes in her home/dojo, often irritating her father, who also seems to get used to Mitsuhashi. She is romantically interested in Mitsuhashi and is one of the people close to him who know his softer side. She is the only person who refers to Mitsuhashi as "San-chan" because 三 (mitsu) is also read as the number three (san).
Ryō Tanaka (田中良)
Student of the Akasaka style dojo, and in love with Riko. His sense of justice is as strong as Itō's, and he is a modest person who is willing to help people in need out whenever he can. Despite his initially weak body, he never backed down to any delinquent's threat. He was transferred to Nan High together with Riko, which is why everyone calls him "Ryou-kun" like Riko does. Surprisingly, he can hold his own against Mitsuhashi.
Shūichi Takasaki (高崎秀一)
A transfer student from Saitama. He originally transferred to Nan High to avoid trouble at his home place of Saitama during the Kitagawa incident, and was quickly at enmity with Mitsuhashi because of his righteous nature, even more so than Itō. When he first appeared, he seems to have an equal charm towards girls as Itō, which only grew when he defeated the duo in a match of Judo. At the end of the Kitagawa incident, he got to know Mitsuhashi's true nature and became friend with them, aiding them multiple times in battle in order to repay their favor. A running gag in the story, is whenever Itō is doing something emotional with Kyōko, he appears and witness an embarrassing scene.
Naoya Sagawa (佐川直也)
A delinquent from Nan High, who quickly became Mitsuhashi's and Itō's lackey and informant due to his nature "always succumbing to the circumstances". Even though he is no strong fighter, people respect him for the sole sake of him being able to call for Itō and Mitsuhashi's help at any given time.
Keiichi Izawa (伊沢圭一)
A delinquent and good friend with Sagawa, also being considered a lackey of Mitsuhashi and Itō.
Megumi (メグミ)
Riko's girl friend at Nan High, with lots of screentime, but very few times they refer to her with her name.
Yūichi Sakakigawa (榊原雄一)
A junior with passable strength, at least 2 years younger than Mitsuhashi. Mitsuhashi gave him the nickname of "pisshead" because he once peed on them while they were trapped in a well. When introduced, he is an overconfident middle school student and tries to defeat Mitsuhashi. However, he soon gains immense respect for Mitsuhashi after witnessing his strength and looks up to him. Mitsuhashi regards him as a bud despite his young age.

Seiran Girl School

Kyōko Hayakawa (早川京子)
A former sukeban girl. She becomes Itō's girlfriend near the beginning of the series after he takes a beating in order to rescue her from a group of thugs. Her parents approve of her dating Itō and are just grateful that she is not dating Mitsuhashi.

Benibane High

Katsutoshi Imai (今井勝俊)
Beni high's banchō, the eldest son of four brothers. Despite his incredible strength, his intelligence is not up to scratch. Even though he looks handsome at first glance, he cannot get a girlfriend because he often unintentionally ends up looking like a fool. Imai possesses impressive strength, usually throwing his opponents. However, he still could not win against many of his rivals. Mitsuhashi often tries to hinder Imai, especially when good things happen to him. Itō, on the other hand, usually gets along with Imai, respecting his honest efforts. He is often looking for ways to better himself.
Yasuo Tanigawa (谷川安夫)
Imai's lackey and best friend. He respects Imai wholeheartedly and made a promise to follow Imai his entire life. He tends to get involved in a lot of troubles with Imai, and because of his small size, he's usually the first to get picked on. Despite his lack of strength, he has a lot of spirit, which sometimes intimidates people.
Tarō Koyama (小山太郎)
An obese giant, who also decided to follow Imai as his lackey, after he was defeated in a fight. It is implied that he has anger issues and was thus expelled from his old school. His size makes him a formidable fighter even Imai acknowledges. He likes to refer to Imai as "aniki".
Makoto Nakano (中野誠)
Originally from Ibaraki, Nakano transferred to Beni high due to his quarrel with the local yakuza boss' son. Despite his short stature, he was able to fight on par with Itō and Mitsuhashi during their school trip to Kyoto. His original goal in going to Chiba was to defeat Mitsuhashi, although he later settles in and even joins them in their raid of Akehisa.

Akehisa High

Satoshi Katagiri (片桐智司)
Being the banchō of the delinquent high school Akehisa, he is feared among his enemies and respected amongst his fellowship. He is on par with Mitsuhashi strength-wise, but stopped with his delinquent career the moment he stepped out of his school and entered society.
Takeshi Sagara (相良猛)
He is as dangerous as a rabid dog. His methods are as dirty as Mitsuhashi's, however his own twisted character makes him always go a step further than Mitsuhashi. He is the only person who managed to completely disable Mitsuhashi's abilities during their last encounter by severely injuring him.
Suenaga (末永)
Satoshi's successors as head of Akehisa, he lacks his predecessor strength and characters, often using Akehisa sheer number and name to avoid actual fighting.

Others

Ryōko Morigawa (森川涼子)
A girl who usually fights with a shinai. When she is introduced into the story, she notices her cousin Satoru's bruises from Hokunei. Satoru lies and tells her that it was Mitsuhashi who did it, in order to keep her out of it. However, that only makes things worse and she tries going after Mitsuhashi and the others. Later on, she develops a crush on Imai due to his good nature. She was herself a (unwilling) delinquent and decided to change herself to a normal girl when she transferred, although it did not last very long and she soon became respected by the other delinquents of her new school.
Tetsuya Kurosaki (黒崎鉄矢)