News roundup: The DOKUGAN manga, books and a silly character ranking

The upcoming Sengoku Basara: DOKUGAN manga now has a launch date

The Sengoku Basara tenth anniversary website has revealed that Nekoi Yasuyuki's Sengoku Basara: DOKUGAN modern day alternate universe manga now finally has a start date. It's been a long time coming; the manga was first announced last July for a winter release date!

As previously announced, the manga will be serialised in Akita Shoten's Young Champion magazine (released on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month). DOKUGAN will begin its run on 26th April 2016 and it's billed as a heroic story of swords and bikes in the land of Hinomoto. It's the year 0011 in the BASARA calendar, and Oushuu has been forced to yield to rule by Ushuu's Mogami Yoshiaki and his tyranny. Against that backdrop, a one-eyed man with a wild motorbike appears...

Since it's been a while I'll repost the older teaser images again too showing Masamune with his bike too.

I'm very curious to see which other Sengoku Basara characters will be making appearances too.

The Sengoku Basara 3 novels are returning in omnibus form

I was browsing the Mangaoh website yesterday and noticed that a listing had appeared for a new novel titled Sengoku Basara 3: Sanada Yukimura & Sarutobi Sasuke No Shou ('Sanada Yukimura & Sarutobi Sasuke Chapter'). Digging deeper I found that it was also showing up on Amazon Japan, and piecing the details together it seems that it's an omnibus edition of two previous books, Nozaki Masato's Sengoku Basara 3: Sanada Yukimura No Shou ('Sanada Yukimura Chapter') and Sasahara Shio's Sengoku Basara 3: Sarutobi Sasuke No Shou ('Sarutobi Sasuke Chapter'). Amazon's more detailed listing advises that the new book will be 560 pages long and cost ¥994 when it's released on 13th May 2015. The publisher is Kodansha via their Kodansha Bunko label this time (the previous Sengoku Basara 3 stories were published as premium Kodansha BOX editions so this new version will be much more affordable).

Amazon's description boasts that this is the first in four monthly releases, so it sounds as though all eight of the old Kodansha BOX novels will be getting the omnibus treatment this summer. The timing of the Yukimura and Sasuke volume leading the way makes me think they want to hint that Sasuke might be returning for Sengoku Basara: Sanada Yukimura-den. Am I reading too much into things? (Yes.)

The final standings are published for the 7-Eleven 'character ranking'

The first round of the Print Charamide Sengoku Basara ~Jindori Gassen!~ ('Base-grabbing Battle!') campaign in Japanese 7-Eleven stores is now over, and as promised the website has published the rankings for the characters based on how many pictures each team sold. Please don't take this too seriously as being able to sell individual ¥150 pictures is more a mark of how devoted each character's fans are than a precise measurement of popularity - but still, there are some grains of truth amongst the crazier results. The placement of the Toyotomi army at the top is no big surprise.

7-Eleven kindly broke down the individual rankings within each 'army' so people can see how well their favourite character did.

1st: Conqueror Kings
1. Ishida Mitsunari
2. Shima Sakon
3. Ootani Yoshitsugu
4. Takenaka Hanbee
5. Toyotomi Hideyoshi

2nd: Manly Men
1. Sarutobi Sasuke
2. Sanada Yukimura
3. Takeda Shingen
4. Shimazu Yoshihiro
5. Miyamoto Musashi
6. Honganji Kennyo

3rd: Setouchis
1. Chousokabe Motochika
2. Mouri Motonari
3. Tsuruhime
4. Tenkai
5. Saika Magoichi
6. Kobayakawa Hideaki

4th: Oushuus
1. Date Masamune
2. Katakura Kojuurou
3. Shibata Katsuie
4. Itsuki
5. Mogami Yoshiaki

5th: Demon Lords
1. Azai Nagamasa
2. Akechi Mitsuhide
3. Oichi
4. Oda Nobunaga
5. Nouhime
6. Mori Ranmaru

6th: Regional Lords
1. Amago Haruhisa
2. Anegakouji Yoritsuna
3. Utsunomiya Hirotsuna
4. Nanbu Harumasa
5. Naoe Kanetsugu
6. Satake Yoshishige

7th: Emperors
1. Matsunaga Hisahide
2. Ashikaga Yoshiteru
3. Sen No Rikyuu (Sabisuke)
4. Sen No Rikyuu (Wabisuke)
5. Kyougoku Maria
6. Yamanaka Shikanosuke

8th: Bonds
1. Fuuma Kotarou
2. Tokugawa Ieyasu
3. Honda Tadakatsu
4. Tokugawa Ieyasu (young version)
5. Ii Naotora
6. Houjou Ujimasa

9th: Three 'bee's
1. Gotou Matabee (version 2)
2. Takenaka Hanbee (version 2)
3. Kuroda Kanbee (version 2)

10th: Loves
1. Maeda Keiji
2. Kasuga
3. Matsu
4. Maeda Toshiie
5. Uesugi Kenshin
6. Imagawa Yoshimoto

11th: Kyuushuus
1. Gotou Matabee
2. Kuroda Kanbee
3. Ootomo Sourin
4. Tachibana Muneshige
5. Xavi

12th: Sengoku Gourmet Association
1. Katakura Kojuurou (version 2)
2. Kobayakawa Hideaki (version 2)
3. Matsu (version 2)

13th: Tiger-users
1. Sanada Yukimura (version 2)
2. Utsunomiya Hirotsuna (version 2)
3. Ii Naotora (version 2)

While the Toyotomi army is arranged exactly as their relative popularity appears from where I'm standing, the 'Manly Men' were a surprise; Sasuke did better than Yukimura! Other surprises included Ieyasu coming below Kotarou, eternally-doomed Nagamasa triumphing in the Oda bracket and Masamune's army getting crushed; it had some weaker members but fourth place is still pretty bad for a main character with such a natural advantage. The eternal rivalry between Motonari and Motochika has resulted in Aniki doing better this time, making up for his loss in the old BSR48 survey. None of the girls did all that well which is a shame (and possibly a side effect of the ranking being generated in such an eccentric fashion; the campaign might not have connected so well with male fans). The characters who had more than one picture available may have suffered from their 'votes' being split between both versions.

There are some happy results from this survey; if I'm understanding the rules correctly it means that obscure characters such as Tsuruhime, Nouhime, Ranmaru, Yoshihiro and Itsuki could be appearing on the tiny pieces of merchandise available through a follow-up campaign in July. It's been almost forever since some of them had any merchandise and Gyoubu doesn't usually get much either even though he has a hardcore following in his own right. Congratulations to their fans!