Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin

Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin is a manga and anime series that ran from 1983 to 1986. It was created by manga author Yoshihiro Takahashi. The main character is an Akita Inu dog called "Gin" (which is Japanese for "silver"). It was released in Korea, Finland, Sweden, Hungary, Norway and China. It is mostly popular in its country of origin, Japan, as well as Finland and the United States.

Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin
銀牙 -流れ星 銀-
Manga
Written byYoshihiro Takahashi
Published byShueisha
DemographicShōnen
MagazineWeekly Shōnen Jump
Original run19831987
Volumes18 (first edition)
Anime television series
Directed byTomoharu Katsumata
Written byMitsuru Majima
Kenji Terada
Music byGorō Oumi
StudioToei Animation
Original networkTV Asahi
Original run April 7, 1986 September 22, 1986
Episodes21

Story

The story tells of Gin, a tiger-striped Akita Inu who is born and is trained harshly by a dog-trainer called Gohei Takeda (nickname is "Jii-Sama") to become a bear-dog because it is believed tiger-striped Akita Inus are the best to kill bears. A large monstrous bear called Akakabuto (Japanese for "red helmet") terrorizises Gin's hometown for several years.

While with his owner, a 12-year-old boy named Daisuke, Gin stumbles upon some wild dogs, and wants to join them, but he is stopped. Later, Gin finds them again and realizes their aim is to fight against and defeat the bear Akakabuto.

Gin's father, Riki, is a favourite of Gohei Takeda. He does not remember his son Gin due to amnesia, which he got from a battle with Akakabuto.