Justy (manga)

Manga and direct to video anime

Justy (ジャスティ) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tsuguo Okazaki which ran in Shōnen Sunday Zōkan. It was adapted into an original video animation (OVA) released on July 20, 1985. The OVA was released as a double feature with the Area 88 film. The story follows Justy Kaizard, a police officer who chases down criminal espers; his tactics might be similar to those of a bounty hunter but he is a salary drawing officer. Justy is also an esper with remarkable powers. He is able to moderate his psychic forces by the use of the headband that he wears. With this device, which acts only as a psychic damper, he can finely attenuate his powers to prevent collateral damage. Viz translated part of the manga into English and released nine out of order issues She doesn't remember what happened to her father, or that Justy was the one who killed him. She is technically the prisoner of Jelna, and Justy has taken on the responsibility of raising her, treating her as a favorite younger sister. Because her esper powers are so great, she also wears a headband which dampens them. She meets Yoshiko Tachibana during Justy's second mission to the Earth. Rector (レクター)
The commandant of the Galaxy Patrol Cosmo Police Space Station Office. He is the one who gives orders to Justy. Bolba (ボルバー・シークレン)
A member of the Cosmo Police, designation Σ03 1 (Sigma 03 1). He's like an older brother to Justy, and has a very cheerful personality. Despite having a Sigma designation, he has little or no esper powers, but helps in the investigation of esper related incidents. In the Viz comic translations, his name is Trevor. Yoshiko Tachibana (立花美子)
A school girl from Japan and member of First Year A Class at Yumeno Academy. She has a cheerful disposition and is a member of the Hygiene Committee there.

CP Σ04 1 (Cosmo Police Sigma 04 1), the first chapter in the story, was published in the August 1981 issue of Shōnen Sunday Zōkan as a standalone story. Okazaki then continued the story with manga published monthly from November 1981 through September 1984. There were editorial disputes over the storyline with some of the Shogakukan editors, however, so when the story went out of print through Shogakukan, the manga was published through the gravure idol magazine Scola. The series was collected into five tankōbon volumes under the title Justy (ジャスティ) in Japan, and the equivalent of about two of them were released in English by Viz in nine badly translated, out of order as one of their early translations. In the July 15, 2009 issue of Shōnen Sunday, a column titled "Shōnen Sunday 1983" had an interview with Okazaki as well as an updated version illustration of Justy.

Justin Sevakis, in a review of the OVA for Anime News Network, had mixed feelings about it. He stated the OVA had a "heavy over the top cheese factor", but said "the film is one that simply can't be dismissed entirely." He especially liked the ending theme song, performed by Miki Asakura, calling it a "[guilty] pleasure", and pointed out that Astalis was the "closest any character ever got to being moë in 1985". Fred Patten called the Justy manga one of the "best" of a new (in 1984) group of manga influenced by Locke the Superman which featured "lone wolf teenage space heroes who possess unusual talents." The backgrounds of the manga were compared by Jason Thompson to those used by Ryōichi Ikegami in his manga. Thompson also wrote that Okazaki's "characters' childlike, cute faces [foretold] the anime style of the 1980s." Thompson also mentioned the out of order release of the few English language chapters. Helen McCarthy gave it two and a half stars (out of five) in her The Anime! Movie Guide review book.