In honor of the Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin (GNG for short) anime turned 40 on April 7th, let's start the first post of my trivia series! Episode 1: The Little Hero - Gin is Born!
Screenwriter: Mitsuru Majima
Animation Director: Jouji Yanase
Director: Tomoharu Katsumata
Original Japanese broadcast date: April 7th, 1986
Differences between anime and manga
Episode 1 consists of manga chapters 1 and 2.
The violence in the manga is much more brutal than in the anime (even by the standards of the uncut version!). In particular, the cutting off of Gohee's ear and leg is shown in more detail in the manga than in the anime.
In the manga, Gohee Takeda is introduced before the flashback of Shiro's death is shown. In the anime, he is introduced after.
In the manga, Daisuke tells his friend Shinji about Shiro's death and how Gohee lost his left ear to Akakabuto.
Aka and Don are never introduced or mentioned by name in the anime, and Aka is not Riki's son unlike in the manga.
In the anime, it's Sacchan who is impressed by how much Daisuke knows about dogs, in the manga, it's a random male student who wears glasses.
In the manga, Daisuke does not throw Gin into the air after giving him a name, unlike in the anime.
Toshiaki "Toshi" and Kazue "Kazu" do not appear in the anime. Instead of Toshiaki, Akakabuto kills an unknown skier off-screen. Also, Akakabuto has one more victim in the anime when he kills a man named Gen (this is shown in a flashback).
In the manga, Daisuke has already been to Kotobuki Valley and found the wounded mayor, and the bodies of Aka and Don. In the anime, he doesn't make it any further when he sees men carrying the mayor on a stretcher.
The manga has a little humorous scene that is not seen in the anime! :D
The anime doesn't have Daisuke's nightmare scene where Gohee SHOOTS RIKI!
In the manga, Riki speaks earlier than in the anime.
In the opening, the space between Cross's ear and head is painted gray, even though it should be left transparent. This mistake is never corrected during the entire 21-episode series!
During the birth of the puppies, the light markings on the face and legs of one of Gin's siblings are missing.
In this scene, Gin's light facial markings are missing.
Fuji's water bowl changes places between shots.
In this scene, Fuji's cel is overlapping with a water bowl.
Even though Akakabuto attacked Gen from the front, he still has scars on his back.
In some scenes, Gohee's gloves are completely black instead of his fingers coming through them.
When Don's dead body is shown, the light markings on his face are missing.
When Riki raises his head, half of it remains transparent for one frame!
After eating Gohee's meat and feeling sick, it looks like Riki messed himself up because they forgot to move his leg out of the way.
When Riki throws Gin to safety, a collar appears on the puppy out of nowhere!
When Gin "rubs" Gohee, the claw on his other paw flashes the color of the blanket between shots.
Gin has the same name in both Finnish and Hungarian, which means "Silver Arrow" ("Hopeanuoli" and "Ezüst Nyíl", the name of the series in these countries, also). Elsewhere, his name is translated literally as "Silver".
This opening scene is very reminiscent of a scene from the Arion film, which was released just a month before this anime!
Daisuke's VA, Chika Sakamoto, is best known for her role as Agumon in the Digimon franchise.
Gohee Takeda's VA, Takeshi Watabe, is best known for his role as the voice of Kiba Daiou in Fist of The North Star (Hokuto no Ken) and Helmut Lennenkampf in Legend of the Galactic Heroes.
Gen's VA, Yasuo Tanaka, is mentioned in the end credits, despite not having any dialogue.
Speaking of him, his name is translated as "Genji" in many subtitles, although his real name is just Gen. "Genjii" means "old Gen". The Swedish dub translates this correctly.
Gohee Takeda is mistakenly referred to as Daisuke's grandfather in many dubs. This is because his nickname "Jii-sama" can be translated as both "grandfather" and "old man".
Sacchan is referred to only as "Female Customer" in the end credits. Her name is also not mentioned in the manga until the last chapter. As a side note, her VA, Hiromi Tsuru, is better known as the voice of Bulma in the Dragon Ball franchise!
The mayor's VA, Kouhei Miyauchi, is best known for his role as the voice of Master Roshi in the Dragon Ball franchise, as the voice of Mitsumasa Kido in Saint Seiya, as well as the voices of many of the village elders in Fist of The North Star.
For some reason, the next episode previews at the end of episodes have been completely omitted from releases outside of Japan.
