Ask John: How Did Bastard! Get its Name?

Question:
How many volumes are in the anime Bastard, and how did they come up with the name?

Answer:
Kazushi Hagiwara began his career in manga as an assistant for Kimagure Orange Road creator Izumi Matsumoto and gained fame through his action/fantasy manga Bastard! and his anime co-production with writer Akahori Satoru, Bakuen Campus Gardress. The Bastard manga premiered in Shonen Jump magazine in 1988 and currently has 19 collected manga volumes. The animation series was a 6 episode production released bi-monthly beginning in August of 1992. The names in Bastard are based on Kazushi Hagiwara’s well documented love of American heavy metal music. I don’t know whether the name “Bastard!” itself is a direct reference to heavy metal or if it was simply intended to conjure up a “hard rock” attitude, but many of the names in the series are actually puns on the names of the creator’s favorite rock groups. Bastard is set in the kingdom of Metalicana (Metallica), and features the demon sorcerer Dark Schneider, arguably either a parody on the name of Dee Schneider, lead singer of Twisted Sister, or according to Viz Communications, a reference to German heavy metal star Udo Dirkschneider. Other noticeable rock and roll pun names in Bastard include the name of the god of chaos, Anthrasax (Anthrax) and the castle guard Bon Jovina (Bon Jovi).

Some fans may also be interested to know that beside the long, continuing manga and 6 episode OAV series, Bastard! has had 3 video game incarnations- an action game for the NEC Turbo CD, a fighting game for the Super Famicom and an RPG for the Playstation that featured a very nice, totally new anime opening animation sequence.