Genma Taisen (1983)

This is one of the most infamous computer games from Japan ever made. You can mostly blame the 1967 film The Graduate. I’ll explain along the way– From the first issue of Genma Taisen, the original manga. Genma Taisen, the manga, was first serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine starting in 1967, with writing by Kazumasa Hirai and art by Shotaro Ishinomori. By then both men had established careers, with Hirai writing the 8 Man series (1963 – 1966) and Ishinomori launching Cyborg 009 in 1964; both are early important works of the Japanese superhero genre, and Ishinomori would not only later be called “the Stan Lee of Japan” but would be honored with an entire museum dedicated to his work. Genma Taisen opens with Princess Luna (an actual princess from Transylvania who can see the future) in an airplane that gets smashed from space. This is the first volley in a war waged by the demon Genma who seeks to destroy the Earth, as he has done on many worlds before. Luna and the alien cyborg Vega…