Wing-Man

Wing-Man is the story of Kenta Hirono, a fan of superheroes and sentai television shows to the point where he dreams of becoming such a hero himself. To that end, he creates a superhero of his own called "Wingman", and, much to the chagrin of his teachers, acts out his fantasies of being Wingman at school. When Kenta meets Aoi Yume, the beautiful blue-haired princess of an alternate universe called Podreams, he gets his chance to make his fantasy come true, as Aoi carries a book called a Dream Note which can make any dream come true, and Kenta draws a picture of Wingman in the book, allowing him to become Wingman for real. Kenta, Aoi and Kenta's classmate and love interest, Miku Ogawa, team up to save Podreams from the evil dictator Rimel, who wants to use the Dream Note to take over Podreams, while Kenta deals with his conflicting feelings for both of his female compatriots.

Kenta Hirono (広野健太, Hirono Kenta) Voiced by: Ryō Horikawa Played by: Maito Fujioka Aoi Yume (夢あおい, Yume Aoi) Voiced by: Yōko Kawanami Played by: Konatsu Kato Miku Ogawa (小川美紅, Ogawa Miku) Voiced by: Naoko Watanabe Played by: Hina Kikuchi Momoko Morimoto (森本桃子, Morimoto Momoko) Voiced by: Yuriko Yamamoto Played by: Amane Uehara Kumiko Fuzawa (布沢久美子, Fuzawa Kumiko) Voiced by: Seiko Nakano Played by: Hiyori Katada Kurumi Mimori (美森くるみ, Mimori Kurumi) Voiced by: Mitsuko Horie Riro Ousei (桜瀬りろ, Ousei Riro) Voiced by: Mika Ishizawa Kenta's Father Voiced by: Kōji Yada Played by: Koji Matoba Kenta's Mother Voiced by: Mariko Mukai Played by: Shinobu Nakayama Masakazu Tonari (戸鳴正和, Tonari Masakazu) Voiced by: Akie Yasuda Keiko Matsuoka (松岡ケイ子, Matsuoka Keiko) Voiced by: Sumi Shimamoto Principal Voiced by: Takeshi Aono Vice Principal Voiced by: Jōji Yanami Fukumoto (福本) Voiced by: Michitaka Kobayashi Doctor Lark (ドクターラーク) Voiced by: Sanji Hase (Anime), Tomokazu Seki (Drama) Rimel (リメル) Voiced by: Hideyuki Tanaka (Anime), Akio Otsuka (Drama) Shunichi Kitakura/Keytackler (キータクラー) Voiced by: Kei Tomiyama Played by: Mamoru Miyano Kitamura-sensei (北村先生) Voiced by: Hideyuki Tanaka Kurotsu/Shaft (シャフト) Voiced by: Kaneto Shiozawa (Kōzō Shioya in episode 7) Doctor Unbalance (ドクターアンバランス) Voiced by: Hiroshi Ōtake The Shiva (ザ・シーバ) Voiced by: Mari Yokō (Anime), Haruka Tomatsu (Drama) Tatsuo Saito/Nars (ナァス) Voiced by: Bin Shimada Ghost Rimel (ゴーストリメル) Voiced by: Eiji Kanie

Kazuhiko Torishima, the editor who discovered Masakazu Katsura, said he was disappointed when the artist told him he wanted to draw a transforming superhero manga. He explained that science fiction works in television with its special effects, but it does not come across visually in manga. So Torishima proposed making it a school story involving girls and asked him to make the main character more realistic and familiar to readers.

The manga was adapted into an anime television series titled Dream Soldier Wing-Man (夢戦士ウイングマン, Yume Senshi Uinguman), produced by Toei Animation and aired from 1984 to 1985. The anime had a total of 47 episodes. Featuring character designs by Yoshinori Kanemori and intended by Toei Animation to be a strong shōnen title following the female-targeted Ai Shite Knight, Wing-Man marked the first anime adaptation of one of Katsura's works and the debut role of Ryo Horikawa as Kenta. (Katsura himself would later appear as Wing-Man in a live-action adaptation of Video Girl Ai.) The anime's ending differs from that of the manga, but the manga's ending was dramatized with the anime's voice actors on a drama LP.

The manga was adapted into a 1984 visual novel adventure game also titled Dream Soldier Wing-Man. It was developed by TamTam and published by Enix for the NEC PC-8801 and other personal computers. It featured a point-and-click interface, where a cursor is used to interact with on-screen objects, similar to Planet Mephius (1983) and the Famicom version of The Portopia Serial Murder Case (1985).

On September 2, 2024, a live-action television adaptation of Wing-Man was announced. Co-produced by TV Tokyo, Toei Video, and DMM TV, it began airing on TV Tokyo and its affiliates on October 22, 2024, and was available on the DMM TV streaming service starting October 16. Maito Fujioka and Konatsu Kato starred as Kenta Hirono and Aoi Yume respectively with Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and Super Sentai veteran Koichi Sakamoto as the director; "Chang[e]" by Blue Encount was the show's opening theme song. The series ended on December 25, 2024. To promote the series, Konatsu Kato was featured in a pictorial in her Aoi Yume costume for the release of the 46th issue of Weekly Young Jump, which was released on October 17, 2024.