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lead=yes is a Japanese manga, written and illustrated by Go Nagai since 1973 until its conclusion in 1990. It has had several serializations and one-shot stories which have run in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Most of the stories have been compiled in around 38 tankōbon volumes, while a few of them have been published as special tankōbon or have yet to be published in that format. Violence Jack is credited with introducing the post-apocalyptic genre to the mediums of manga and anime.
A set of Story arc from the manga were adapted in three independent original video animations (OVAs) released in 1986, 1988 and 1990. These OVAs have been released in the United States, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. In some of these countries, the contents of the OVAs have caused censorship issues, while in Australia the second OVA was banned altogether.
The original manga reuses many concepts and characters from other works by Go Nagai.
Having appeared out of nowhere after the Great Kanto Hell Quake, Jack wanders throughout Kanto, often picking street fights with those he sees as a threat to Kanto. He often helps those who are weaker than him who are preyed upon by violent nomads and criminals who scour Kanto.
Although Jack is described as human, he is often the focal point of strange phenomena that occur in Kanto. Often when he has finished helping the weak and has destroyed the latest threat, he will suddenly vanish without a trace of him ever actually being there.
Many of the towns he visits are often subjected to mysterious earthquakes that occur during or after his arrival. His presence alone sometimes incites those he is around to become violent and seek to attack him.
He is also shown to utilize hallucinations to those he encounters, having once shown a young woman who was planning to sell a girl into slavery where she and her boyfriend are ruthlessly slaughtered. He is also frequently accompanied by a Golden Bird that is only seen at the end of certain arcs.
While in the main continuity, Jack is the revived form of Akira Fudo, in Shin Violence Jack, his identity is instead that of Amon, the demon who merged with Akira to form Devilman.
Thirty years before the Hellquake, he was known as Takatora Doma and was the oldest son of the noble Doma family from Shinshu. Born with a rare, potentially fatal medical condition that accelerates the growth of muscle tissue, he given a heavy set of Samurai armor and an iron mask to prevent any overgrowth of muscle tissue and is locked away in a shed by his family out of fear. Doma is later given a private tutor who helps him to read and write. During later sessions, the tutor becomes aroused by Doma's lack of sexual experience and strips naked in front of him. He later escapes his confinement after discovering his brother and tutor having sex and violently murders them and the rest of his family before disappearing.
A large giant of a man, Slum King is extremely strong and is a highly skilled swordsman. He is one of very few people who can take on Jack in a direct confrontation and survive. While his armor is meant to help in his medical condition, it also provides him with protection against most attacks.
Violent and sadistic in nature, Slum King is widely feared throughout Kanto and is known to make anyone who angers or upsets him by cutting off their arms and legs to the joints and then cutting their tongues out to prevent them from speaking or killing themselves. After his first confrontation with Violence Jack, Slum King and his army scour the wasteland in search of his enemy.
Once a fifth grade student with a good heart and innocent spirit, Ryu's world changed forever after the Great Kanto Hell Quake.
Losing all of his family, Ryu endured the new world alone and gathered a group of followers.
He initially views Jack as a savior until witnessing Jack's thirst for violence and putting him and his group at risk.
After being forced to fight against Slum King's men, Ryu becomes the leader of over three hundred children who banded together to fight Slum King.
He is killed by Jack in a duel to the death with rocket launchers but is later resurrected by Mido via alchemy.
Both he and Mido originate from the manga Gakuen Taikutsu Otoko, also known as Guerrilla High.
When it was originally published there were several hints that pointed out the relationship between Devilman and Violence Jack. The final chapter reveals that the apocalyptic world in Violence Jack is in a world re-created by God. Satan (Ryo Asuka) is punished by being constantly humiliated by Slum King, who is the reincarnation of his second-in-command, Zennon. As part of this punishment, Ryo has had all four of his limbs removed, and is forced to walk on the stumps like a dog. Jack is actually Akira Fudo, and is one of three parts that form Devilman, the others being a child Jack and woman Jack, both of which were normally seen as birds around Jack from time to time. Eventually, Ryo regains his memories and identity as Satan, and leads his army of demons into battle alongside Zennon to resume his battle against Devilman. This time, Devilman is victorious.
Five years later, the serialization continued this time in the magazine Weekly Manga Goraku, published by Nihon Bungeisha, and ran from August 5, 1983, to March 23, 1990. This serialization originally produced 31 volumes in total.
On November 1, 1993, three years later after the end of the previous serialization, a special tankōbon called Baiorensu Jakku Maō Kōrin Hen was released by Nihon Bungeisha. Seven years later, on December 10, 2001, a special one-shot story, Baiorensu Jakku Sengoku Majinden, was published by Shueisha in a special edition of Weekly Young Jump, Bessatsu Young Jump #14. This story has been re-printed in GOGASHA, a two-volume compilation of short stories released in 2017.
In May 2005 (cover date May 13, 2005·20) the magazine Comic Bunch published by Shinchosha, the most recent serialization started, with Shin Baiorensu Jakku. This serialization was irregularly published, stopping on August 19, 2005, and restarting on November 2, 2007, to end on April 11, 2008, in number 17 of Weekly Comic Bunch. This series was compiled and published by Media Factory in two volumes in 2010.
In the February 2021 issue of Kodansha's Monthly Young Magazine, it was announced that a new manga series written by Yū Kinutani, titled Baiorensu Jakku 20XX, began serialization on February 19, 2021, and finished on November 21, 2022. As of September 20, 2022, its chapters have been collected in three tankōbon volumes.
A comet strikes Earth, severely damaging the Kantō region. Volcanoes erupt and huge earthquakes are unleashed, reducing many cities to rubble and killing thousands of people. In this time of weakness, a ruthless man known as the Slum King took control of the Kantō Plain by brute force and rules it with an iron fist. However, in the middle of a trek across the land with his great forces at his side, he encounters a mighty beast-like man wearing a battered green jacket and a yellow ascot who slaughters his men and then targets the Slum King himself. They clash, but their fight is interrupted by a sudden massive tsunami that separates the two.
The Slum King survives the wave and returns to his immense fortress where he tells his men that no one can dare oppose him and be permitted to live. With that said, he promptly orders his men to find and kill Violence Jack, the man whom he confronted before.
Shortly afterwards, a young woman named Mari is captured by the Slum King's army and sent to a sex camp. Her boyfriend, Ken'ichi, rescues her with the help of Violence Jack.
Before Jack, Ken'ichi and Mari can escape, Harem Bomber arrives and challenges Jack to a fight. With great difficulty, Jack manages to defeat Harem Bomber, but at the price of the life of Ken'ichi, who is accidentally killed when Jack swings his helicopter into the Harem Bomber, launching him from the vehicle and causing him to fall to his death.
Mari awakens among the ruins, and looks up to see Jack taking the form of a gigantic golden bird, who flies away with Mari following him on foot.
Due to a massive earthquake, an underground portion of Tokyo has been separated from the outside world. Because of the limited supply of food and the constant threat of intergroup warfare, the underground city's survivors have dubbed the area Hell City. When the story begins, Evil Town has been in existence for several months.
Evil Town is split into three "sections." Section A consists of businessmen and ordinary citizens, and is the most regulated section due to the presence of police officers. Section B, which consists of criminals and lunatics, is controlled by the huge gang leader Mad Saurus and his second in command, Blue, the drag. Section C, a former modeling agency, avoids contact with the other groups except when necessary.
Section A is attempting to dig their way back to the surface when they uncover Violence Jack, who has apparently been sealed in a rock wall since the earthquake. Section A's leaders invite Jack to stay as their protector, but the other sections have also learned of Jack's existence and call a meeting to see him for themselves.
At the meeting, the Section C leader Aila Mu offers to hire Jack as their guardian and tells him a disturbing story: After the earthquake occurred, the men of both A and B ran wild, capturing and raping the women until they learned that there was enough food for long-term survival. Many of the worst offenders are current Section A leaders, who would revert to behaving like animals if another disaster occurred. Convinced by Aila Mu's story, Jack agrees to aid Section C.
Riled by the lingering presence of Jack, Section B launches a surprise attack on Section A; as Aila predicted, A's leaders turn on one another in an attempt to survive, resulting in the near total destruction of the group. The survivors flee to Section C just as the women finish their own tunnel out of Hell City. Section B raiders arrive and finish off Section A, then begin assaulting the women. Jack arrives in time to rescue Section C and defeats the raiders, killing Blue and severely wounding Mad Saurus.
Mad Saurus mourns the loss of Blue, whom he accepted despite Blue's differences. In order to combine their power, Mad Saurus consumes her corpse, transforming into a devilish red creature to battle Jack a second time. During the ensuing fight, Saurus manages to seriously wound Jack using his fingernails, which have elongated into razor-sharp claws, but Jack manages to overpower him and stab him in the head using his jackknife. Mortally wounded, Saurus staggers about and proclaims that he will be reunited with Blue in Hell before dying.
The battle between Mad Saurus and Jack gives Section C enough time to make their way to the surface, which is now an open, grassy plain with several ruined buildings scattered around instead of a city. Aila Mu laments that her skills as a model are useless in the ruined world, but the rest of Section C assures her that she is a capable and beloved leader.
A short while after the cataclysms which rocked Japan, a peaceful town named 'Hope Town' has been established with the intent of returning peace to the region. The biker gang Hell's Wind show up and ransack it. Violence Jack makes his entrance here. The episode starts as a young woman, Jun, and her boyfriend, Tetsuya, are attacked. Tetsuya is murdered by Hell's Wind, and they assault and rape the terrified Jun soon after.
Jack arrives to fight the raiders, and fends off the gang by taking several gunshots which seem to have no effect on him.
Hell's Wind captures a young teacher and takes her to their camp at the Yokota Air Base. They take her top off and strap her to a fighter jet. At the behest of a little orphaned boy, Jack goes to rescue her. They try shooting him with a rocket launcher, but Jack tunnels under the ground and bursts out while being set on fire to kill everyone. The bike leader sends a messenger to their "supreme master" and request reinforcements. Jack finally kills the leader of the gang.
Jack departs, strangely heartened by speaking with the orphaned boy, who vowed to become stronger than anyone to protect the people around him.
The final scene shows another gang of horsemen coming from the distance and showing the messenger strapped to a post. A close-up is made to one of the vehicles to show the Slum King in full armor. The screen turns to black and Slum King's eyes appear, as he becomes furious, and the credits begin to roll.
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Most non-Japanese versions also use the same order of the English version.
Violence Jack was originally released in an edited form in the US by Manga Entertainment. As fans wanted to see it uncut, Right Stuf arranged with Manga Entertainment the release of an unedited version in November 1996. The label Critical Mass was created since it was considered to be too intense for the Right Stuf line. The censored version by Manga Entertainment only had dubbed audio, while the uncensored version by Critical Mass was available in both dubbed and subtitled formats. The censored version was also released in the United Kingdom by Manga Entertainment. In New Zealand, also released by Manga Entertainment, it was promoted as the banned version from Australia.
The OVAs were released in their uncut version by Manga Entertainment in France in 1999 and by Fox Pathé Europa in 2003, and in Italy by Shin Vision also in 2003.
The first release by Manga Entertainment was cut in most countries where it was released (USA, United Kingdom, New Zealand). In the UK release, the cuts amount to 30 in Evil Town of an already cut version for a total of 4:25 mins, 6:43 mins in Hell's Wind, and 25 in Slumking ( Harem Bomber) and are related to sex, violence, bondage and cannibalism. The US version also has similar cuts.
The OVA with most censorship problems was Violence Jack: Evil Town. When Manga Entertainment submitted this OVA to the Australian Classification Board in 1997, the OVA was refused a rating. It is suspected that this version was the already censored version from the UK (the print reviewed ran 55 mins, whereas the original print runs 60 mins.) Since this OVA was banned, the release of the rest was scrapped.
The OVAs were released uncut in Italy and France. In the United States it was also released uncut by Right Stuf under the Critical Mass label. Discotek Media released the OVA series uncut in 2015.
In July 1995, another novel titled baiorensu jakku ōgon toshi hen, written by Tatsuhiko Dan with illustration by Go Nagai, was released by Kodansha.
Kentaro Miura, creator of the manga and anime series Berserk (1989 debut), cited Violence Jack as an influence. Other Japanese media influenced by Violence Jack include the original video animation M.D. Geist (1986) and the Atlus post-apocalyptic video game series (1990 debut). WhatCulture listed the Violence Jack anime series as having the second most gruesome death in anime history.
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