I stumbled across this title while putting together this week’s letter in The Seinen Alphabet, and I felt the need to beg further, since it sounds really interesting. It’s called Rainbow: Risha Nokubo no Shichinin, written by George Abe and illustrated by Masasumi Kakizaki. Quoth Wikipedia:
“The story is set in the 1950s and focuses on six junior delinquents aged sixteen to seventeen that are sent to the Shōnan Special Reform School. They learn to cope with the atrocities and unfairness they encounter there.”
“The manga follows the boys’ lives during their time in the school and the years after they leave.”
A period piece that takes an unflinching look at the juvenile justice system and its consequences? It would be like printing money! Or maybe not, but why not dream big?
For another disadvantage, it’s 22 volumes long, having run for about 7 years in Shogakukan’s Young Sunday, until it was canceled, and then in Big Comic Spirits.
Blog of the North Star thought very highly of the anime, though it may not have garnered a massive audience. Still, there is an anime, and it was legally available on FUNimation, so that’s a point in its favor.
It shared 2006 Shogakukan Manga Award honors with Kaiiji Kawaguchi’s A Spirit in the Sun (Shogakukan), which sounds kind of like Forrest Gump with earthquakes. I could be wrong about that.
