Buronson: the chronology of his works

The editorial team wanted a vigilante series in the vein of Hissatsu Shiokinin. Buronson pushed through a violent cop instead, inspired by Dirty Harry and his .44 Magnum: Kanō Jōji, of the Metropolitan Police special crimes division.

It was for this series that Buronson turned down the exclusivity contract offered by Weekly Shōnen Jump. That disagreement is the origin of his two pen names: Buronson at Shueisha, Shō Fumimura elsewhere.

Three months separated the commission from the first chapter, theme and characters included. Nobuhiko Horie asked him to keep it going for three years, without a contract. Serialization began in the September 26, 1983 issue, opening on forty-six pages, and ran for five years.

The first of three collaborations with Kentarō Miura, followed by Ōrō-den the next year and by Japan in 1992.

Buronson and Ryōichi Ikegami had crossed paths on a 1979 short story, Kizuato, in Big Comic. The pairing only became a lasting one here, at the editors’ request. In 1992, with serialization underway, Buronson asked for a break for the first time.

Set in Shinjuku’s Kabukichō, the story is described by its author as a return to his working-class roots after a Sanctuary that had left him feeling too tense. Forty-seventh Shōgakukan Manga Award in 2002, in the seinen and general categories.

Published in the inaugural issue of Weekly Comic Bunch, the series reunited him with Tetsuo Hara thirteen years after Fist of the North Star. The first volume’s colophon credits Buronson as supervisor. In his essay, he further states that the script is credited to Horie.

A tale of China’s Three Kingdoms, begun in the September 10, 2004 issue. It follows Ryōu, a warrior in the service of Queen Himiko of Yamatai, who reaches the mainland in 184 and becomes Liu Bei there. After a four-month interruption in 2011 and a shift to a monthly schedule, the series was renamed SOUL Ha Dai-2-shō and ended in January 2013, after twenty-two volumes.

The last long serialization of the partnership with Ryōichi Ikegami. The first chapter appeared on October 14, 2016. The publisher’s announcement presents a social and political story following the rise of two men in their respective worlds.

The last serialization listed in the author’s own chronology, fifty years after his 1972 debut. The story follows Hideo Washiyama, an unemployed man in his forties who opens a services agency in Shinjuku, and detective Ookura. Three volumes.