Master Keaton is a Japanese manga series created by Hokusei Katsushika, Naoki Urasawa, and Takashi Nagasaki. It was serialized in Big Comic Original between 1988 and 1994, with the 144 chapters collected into 18 tankōbon volumes by Shogakukan. An anime adaptation was created by Madhouse, with 24 episodes airing between 1998 and 1999 in Japan on Nippon Television. An additional 15 episodes were created and released as original video animations, bringing the total to 39 episodes. Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki created a sequel to the series, titled Master Keaton Remaster. Set 20 years after the original series ended, it ran in Big Comic Original from 2012 to 2014 and was collected into a single volume. The anime and OVA series were dubbed into English and released in North America by Pioneer Entertainment. Viz Media began releasing the manga in North America in 2014.
Plot
The story revolves around Taichi Hiraga-Keaton, the son of Japanese zoologist Taihei Hiraga and well-born Englishwoman Patricia Keaton. Keaton's parents separated when he was five, and young Taichi moved back to England with his mother. As an adult, he studied archeology at Oxford University, in part under the tutelage of Professor Yuri Scott. At Oxford, Keaton met and later married his wife, who was a mathematics student at Somerville College. The couple years later divorced, with Keaton leaving his five-year-old daughter Yuriko in her mother's care. After leaving Oxford, Keaton joined the British Army and became a member of the SAS, holding the post of survival instructor and seeing combat in the Falklands War and as one of the team members that responded to the Iranian Embassy incident. His combat training serves him in good stead as an insurance investigator for the prestigious Lloyd's of London where he is known for his abilities and his unorthodox methods of investigation. In addition to his work for Lloyd's, Keaton and his friend Daniel O'Connell operate their own insurance investigation agency headquartered in London. Even though Keaton is extremely successful as an insurance investigator, his dream is to continue his archaeological research into the possible origins of an ancient European civilization in the Danube River basin.
There is controversy over who wrote the stories for Master Keaton. Hokusei Katsushika is a pseudonym of manga story writer Hajime Kimura, who was also a co-writer of Golgo 13. Originally, Kimura created the series' story, while Naoki Urasawa did the artwork. However, after Kimura died of cancer in December 2004, Urasawa claimed in a May 2005 interview with weekly magazine Shuukan Bunshun that Kimura eventually stopped work as a story writer due to a personal conflict with Urasawa, after which Urasawa alone created both story and art. Because of this, Urasawa demanded that Katsushika's name appear smaller than his on the manga's covers. Manga story writer Kariya Tetsu, who was a close friend of Kimura and an influential figure at Shogakukan, opposed this action vehemently, which resulted in the discontinuation of the further publication of the manga as of July 2005. In 2019, Urasawa said that he had the ideas for the characters and Master Keaton was very much based on that. He was also going to write the manga in addition to illustrating it, but because he was already writing Yawara!, the editorial team was concerned about a young artist being able to create both. They brought in story writers, but the stories they proposed did not match Urasawa's vision. So instead meetings were held to create stories for the manga. But eventually the editors changed, and these "intimate" meetings were no longer possible. This is when Urasawa took the lead on writing the stories. He said that for the last two volumes, it is fair to say he came of with the stories alone. Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki began the sequel Master Keaton Remaster in 2012. When asked why he went back to a series after so many years, Urasawa stated it was because with the original series he had a hard time making the story he wanted due to contractual obligation, and because people affected by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami said they had enjoyed the series, so he wanted to do something for them.
Media
Manga
Master Keaton was serialized in Big Comic Original from 1988 to 1994. The 144 chapters were collected into 18 tankōbon volumes by Shogakukan between November 1988 and August 1994. A kanzenban edition of the series, including color pages, was published in 12 volumes between August 30, 2011 and June 29, 2012. During its initial magazine run and tankōbon release, Hokusei Katsushika was credited as its writer and Naoki Urasawa as its illustrator. The kanzenban reissue co-credits Katsushika and Takashi Nagasaki as the writers for the first five volumes, while Katsushika and Urasawa are co-credited as the writers from volumes six on. Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki created a sequel to the series, titled Master Keaton Remaster. Beginning in the March 2012 issue of Big Comic Original it finished in 2014 and was collected into a single volume on November 28, 2014. A deluxe edition including the full color pages from the magazine run was released the same day. In 2014, Viz Media licensed Master Keaton for release in North America. They began publishing the kanzenban edition with color pages on December 16, 2014.
Volume list
Anime
An anime adaptation covering a portion of the manga's select chapters aired between October 5, 1998 and March 29, 1999 in Japan on NTV. The series was produced by Madhouse, Nippon Television, Shogakukan and VAP and directed by Masayuki Kojima, with Tatsuhiko Urahata handling series composition, Kitarō Kōsaka designing the characters and Kuniaki Haishima composing the music. Originally consisting of 24 episodes, an additional 15 episodes were created and released as original video animations, bringing the total to 39 episodes. Each episode is a complete story. The anime is narrated by Keaton Yamada. The opening theme "Railtown" is by Kuniaki Haishima. The ending theme for episodes 1-13 is "eternal wind" by Blüe, Tameiki by Kneuklid Romance for episodes 14–26, and "from beginning" by Kuniaki Haishima for episodes 27–39. New ending themes were used for the anime's 2007 rebroadcast; "Tsuki to Kimi to Boku no Kankei" by Kneuklid Romance for episodes 1-13 and "EVER" by Blüe for episodes 14–24. The anime and OVAs were licensed in North America by Pioneer Entertainment, with an English dub produced by The Ocean Group. They released eight DVDs between June 10, 2003 and August 10, 2004. Each DVD had 5 episodes, except the last one, which had 4.
Episode list
OVA
Reception
Viz Media's release of Master Keaton was nominated for the "Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia" category two years in a row at the 2015 and 2016 Eisner Awards. The series was also included on the Young Adult Library Services Association's 2016 list of Great Graphic Novels for Teens.
