Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin

Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin
The first book of the first publication of Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin manga
銀牙 -流れ星 銀-
Genre	Coming of age, Action, Adventure
Manga
Written by	Yoshihiro Takahashi
Published by	Shueisha
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Weekly Shōnen Jump
Original run	1983 – 1987
Volumes	18 (first edition)
Anime television series
Directed by	Tomoharu Katsumata
Studio	Tōei Animation
Original network	TV Asahi
Original run	April 7, 1986 – September 22, 1986
Episodes	21

Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin (Japanese: 銀牙 -流れ星 銀-^?, literally "Silver Fang: The Shooting Star Gin") is an adventure manga by Yoshihiro Takahashi. It was published by Shueisha in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1983 to 1987, and collected in 18 bound volumes. It received the 1987 Shogakukan Manga Award for best shōnen series.

The series tells the story of an Akita Inu pup called Gin (Japanese for "silver") who leaves his master, a young boy named Daisuke, to join a pack of wild dogs. The pack is gathering strong dogs from all over Japan to fight a deranged bear named Akakabuto and his minions. The story begins from the point of view of the humans, but swings to the dogs with episode seven of the anime. It is in that episode that the audience hears the dogs communicating with each other through speech, though it continues to be barks and whines to human ears. Takahashi was reportedly inspired by a news article about hunting dogs that had been abandoned by their masters and had begun living as wild animals.

Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin was adapted as a 21-episode anime television series by Toei Animation. In western countries the anime was released as a set of four VHS tapes, and censored for violent images. This led to the removal of several plot-critical scenes, including all footage from the episodes preceding the series finale as well as the deaths of certain characters. Due to limitations of sound-editing at the time this resulted in the background music of certain scenes to be lost.