Wing-Man[Jp. 1] is a Japanese science fiction manga series written and illustrated by Masakazu Katsura. It was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1983 to 1985, with the chapters collected into 13 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha.
Wing-Man is the story of Kenta Hirono, a fan of superheroes and sentai television shows to the point where he dreams of becoming such a hero himself. To that end, he creates a superhero of his own called "Wingman," and, much to the chagrin of his teachers, acts out his fantasies of being Wingman at school. When Kenta meets Aoi Yume, the beautiful blue-haired princess of an alternate universe called Podreams, he gets his chance to make his fantasy come true, as Aoi carries a book called a Dream Note which can make any dream come true, and Kenta draws a picture of Wingman in the book, allowing him to become Wingman for real. Kenta, Aoi and Kenta's classmate and love interest, Miku Ogawa, team up to save Podreams from the evil dictator Rimel, who wants to use the Dream Note to take over Podreams, while Kenta deals with his conflicting feelings for both of his female compatriots.
Voiced by: Ryō Horikawa
Voiced by: Yōko Kawanami
Voiced by: Naoko Watanabe
Voiced by: Yuriko Yamamoto
Voiced by: Seiko Nakano
Voiced by: Mitsuko Horie
Voiced by: Mika Ishizawa
Voiced by: Kōji Yada
Voiced by: Mariko Mukai
Voiced by: Akie Yasuda
Voiced by: Sumi Shimamoto
Voiced by: Takeshi Aono
Voiced by: Jōji Yanami
Voiced by: Michitaka Kobayashi
Voiced by: Sanji Hase
Voiced by: Hideyuki Tanaka
Voiced by: Kei Tomiyama
Voiced by: Hideyuki Tanaka
Voiced by: Kaneto Shiozawa (Kōzō Shioya in episode 7)
Voiced by: Hiroshi Ōtake
Voiced by: Mari Yokō
Voiced by: Bin Shimada
Voiced by: Eiji Kanie
The manga was adapted into an anime television series titled Dream Soldier Wing-Man[Jp. 2] in 1984, produced by Toei Animation and airing on TV Asahi. It also had a 1984 visual novel adventure game adaptation of the same name, developed by TamTam and published by Enix for the NEC PC-8801 and other Japanese personal computers.[2] It featured a point-and-click interface, where a cursor is used to interact with on-screen objects,[3] similar to Planet Mephius (1983)[3] and the Famicom version of The Portopia Serial Murder Case (1985).[4]
The anime, featuring character designs by Yoshinori Kanemori and intended by Toei Animation to be a strong shōnen title following the female-targeted Ai Shite Knight, marked the first anime adaptation of one of Katsura's works (Katsura himself would later appear as Wingman in a live-action adaptation of Video Girl Ai) and the debut role of Ryo Horikawa as Kenta. The anime's ending is different from that of the manga, the manga ending was never animated but was dramatized with the anime's voice actors on a drama LP.
On September 2, 2024 a live-action television adaptation of the manga was announced. Coproduced by TV Tokyo, Toei Video, and DMM TV, it will begin airing on TV Tokyo on October 22, 2024 and will be available on the DMM TV streaming service starting October 16.[5]
Maito Fujioka and Konatsu Kato will star as Kenta Hirono and Aoi Yume respectively with Kamen Rider and Super Sentai veteran Koichi Sakamoto as the director, chang[e] by BLUE ENCOUNT will be the show's opening theme.[6]