Manga
Bastard!! is written and illustrated by Kazushi Hagiwara. A pilot chapter, titled ''Wizard!! Bakuen no Seifukusha, was published in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump in 1987.[14] Bastard!!'' began serialization in the same magazine on March 14, 1988, and ran on a regular basis in the magazine until August 21, 1989.[15] The first volume was published on August 10, 1988. The series was then switched to the Weekly Shōnen Jump Specials quarterly magazine, where it ran on an irregular basis.[16] It was later published again in Weekly Shōnen Jump, on an irregular "monthly" basis, from 1997 to 2000.[15] The series was transferred to the manga magazine Ultra Jump, starting on December 19, 2000.[17][18] The manga is published in the magazine on an irregular schedule.[19] Its latest chapter was published on May 19, 2010.[20][21][22] Twenty-seven volumes have been released as of March 2012. Shueisha re-released the series in a new -like edition, titled ''Bastard!! Complete Edition''. The first volume updates Hagiwara's art style, improving backgrounds, screentones and includes redrawing of some characters. The second volume is fully redrawn and includes a graphic sex scene not included in the original release. Further volumes are unchanged.[16] Volumes were released from December 2000 to December 2009.[23][24] In 2014, Shueisha released a nine-volume edition from May to September.[25][26]
In North America, Viz Media announced the license of Bastard!! in July 2001.[27] The Viz edition is based on ''Bastard!! Complete Edition''.[28] Viz edition differs in a few ways from Japan release. Including graphic sexual scenes being censored, the major differences are the changing of location named after real-life bands. Viz Media (and Pioneer for the OVA adaptation) took the Japanese transliterations of these band names and changed them somewhat, then transliterating them back to English, e.g., Anthrax became "Anthrasax", Iron Maiden into "Aian Meide", and the main city in which the story takes place, Metallicana, was changed to "Meta-Rikana".[16][29] Viz Media published the first five volumes in a left-to-right edition from August 2002 to December 2003. The volumes were later republished in its original right-to-left version starting from November 2003. The manga stopped its publication after the release of volume 19 in September 2009.
A 51-page reboot of the pilot chapter, ''Wizard!! Bakuen no Seifukusha, illustrated by Tatsuya Shihara, was published in Ultra Jump'' on July 29, 2023.[14][30]
Original video animation
A six-episode original video animation (OVA) series by AIC was released between August 25, 1992, and June 25, 1993.[83] The OVA cover the story up through the Four Lords of Havoc's battle against Abigail (volumes 6–7 of the manga).[2]
In North America, Pioneer Entertainment released the series on three VHS set tapes with an English dub between August 28 and December 8, 1998.[84][85][86] Pioneer re-released the OVA on DVD on June 5, 2001.[87]
Original net animation
An original net animation (ONA) adaptation by Liden Films was announced on February 3, 2022. The 24-episode ONA is directed by Takaharu Ozaki, with scripts written by Yōsuke Kuroda, character designs by Sayaka Ono, and music composed by Yasuharu Takanashi. The first 13 episodes were released worldwide on Netflix on June 30, 2022, while the remaining 11 episodes were released on September 15 of the same year.[89][90][91] The opening theme is "Bloody Power Fame" by Coldrain, while the ending theme is "Blessless" by Tielle.[92][93] In Japan, the ONA series began a televised broadcast on BS11
Video games
A 1994 Bastard!! 3D fighting game was released for Super Famicom.[101] A role-playing video game with turn-based fighting elements, titled Bastard!! -Utsuro Naru Kamigami no Utsuwa- (BASTARD!! -虚ろなる神々の器-), was released for PlayStation on December 27, 1996.[102]
A MMOG platformer called ''Bastard!! Online'' was also in development by the Japanese publisher Tecmo and software developer Shaft. A beta test was released in 2006;[103][104] however, Tecmo announced that they had canceled its development in December 2009.[105]
