Cool Stuff Tuesdays - Bari Bari Densetsu "Motorcycle Legend"

Bari Bari Densetsu (バリバリ伝説?, "Motorcycle Legend") is an early motorbike racing manga series by Shuichi Shigeno, who went on to create the Initial D series. It was published in 38 volumes between 1983 and 1991 by Kodansha. In 1985, it won the Kodansha Manga Award for shōnen. This manga about 4 high-schoolers and bike races got tremendous support from bike fans back then[citation needed] due to the realness and detail of the bikes Shigeno drew. The story has a lot of similar points with Initial D. Racing on the public road (illegal of course) is the center of the storyline in the first half. It became a social problem in Japan because many "Hashiriya" got influenced by it and became "Rolling-zoku"(hashiriya trying to see how fast they can go through curves). One of the most popular topics involving the series occurs when the main characters' rival dies in an automobile accident. There is also an OVA based on the manga. It is called Bari-den for short. In August 1987, it was shown in the theater by JapanHerald. In 1989 the manga was also licensed as a commercial video game by Taito Corporation for Japanese PC Engine consoles (TurboGrafx 16 in North America, where the game was also known as Gunboy and Taito Bike Racing). The character Gun Koma appears as a hidden character in the PlayStation 2 game MotoGP by Namco