The Fable


The Fable


The Fable (Japanese: ザ・ファブル, Hepburn: Za Faburu) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Katsuhisa Minami. It was serialized in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Magazine from November 2014 to November 2019, with its chapters collected in 22 tankōbon volumes. A sequel series, titled The Fable: The Second Contact, ran in Weekly Young Magazine from July 2021 to July 2023.

A live-action film adaptation premiered in Japan in June 2019 and a sequel premiered in June 2021. An anime television series adaptation produced by Tezuka Productions premiered in April 2024.

By October 2022, the manga had over 20 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling manga series. In 2017, The Fable won the 41st Kodansha Manga Award for the General category.

Plot

Equipped with his favorite weapon, an anthracite-colored Nighthawk pistol, "Fable" is a professional killer feared by all the Japanese underworld, politicians, mobsters and public figures. This assassination genius can send any of his targets six feet under and in six seconds, if his heart tells him. One day, his sponsor orders him to put everything on hold and lead the life of an ordinary citizen, in the hideout of a yakuza clan in Osaka, banned from killing or attacking anyone for an entire year. For this human weapon with an unpredictable temperament, surrounded by trigger-happy criminals, the hardest contract begins.

Characters

Akira Satō (佐藤 明, Satō Akira)
Voiced by: Kazuyuki Okitsu
Portrayed by: Junichi Okada, Ryoka Minamide (young)
He is a quietly spoken but highly skilled hitman, known only as "Fable". He has had a female assistant and driver for the past year and knows nothing about her or her name. They are ordered to lay low for a year and he is given the name and identity of Akira Sato and his assistant will act as his sister, Yoko.
Yōko Satō (佐藤 洋子, Satō Yōko)
Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro
Portrayed by: Fumino Kimura
A woman with long brown hair and a photographic memory who acts as Fable's assistant and driver. She is ordered to lay low with him for a year, acting as his sister and given the name Yoko Sato.
Boss (ボス, Bosu)
Voiced by: Tetsuo Komura
Portrayed by: Kōichi Satō
The man who assigns Fable his jobs but then tells him to take a year off to lay low in Osaka with the Maguro clan.
Misaki Shimizu (清水 岬, Shimizu Misaki)
Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa
Portrayed by: Mizuki Yamamoto
A woman who lives alone in an apartment near where Fable and his assistant stay in Osaka. She works multiple jobs to repay her father's debts, but she is blackmailed into agreeing to become a call girl by Kojima when he learns of her former career as a gravure idol.
Jackal Tomioka (ジャッカル富岡, Jakkaru Tomioka)
Voiced by: Jun Fukushima
Portrayed by: Daisuke Miyagawa
A popular comedian who Fable thinks is really funny.
Hiroshi Hamada
Voiced by: Kōji Ishii
Portrayed by: Ken Mitsuishi
Chief in the Maguro clan who accepts the arrangement to shelter Fable and his assistant.
Takeshi Ebihara (海老原 剛士, Ebihara Takeshi)
Voiced by: Akio Otsuka
Portrayed by: Ken Yasuda
Captain in the Maguro clan, Ebihara is unhappy about the arrangement to shelter Fable and his assistant. He is suspicious of Fable's motives, but after suffering a heart attack he involves Akira in his operations.
Kojima (小島)
Voiced by: Kenjiro Tsuda
Portrayed by: Yuya Yagira
Middle-ranking member of the Maguro clan who has spent the last few years in prison. Upon his release, he decides to advance his career within the clan and encroaches on Sunagawa's territory.
Kuroshio
Voiced by: Ryota Iwasaki
Portrayed by: Kai Inowaki
A lowly member of the Maguro clan.
Katsuya Takahashi
Voiced by: Yudai Mino
A lowly member of the Maguro clan.
Shūichi Sunagawa
Voiced by: Kōjirō Takahashi
Portrayed by: Osamu Mukai
Middle-ranking member of the Maguro clan who runs a call girl business and who sees Kojima as a threat.
Matsu
Voiced by: Kiyomitsu Mizuuchi
Kenjirō Takōda
Voiced by: Takeharu Onishi
Portrayed by: Jiro Sato
Misaki's boss and the manager of Octopus Ltd. who gives Fable a temporary job as a delivery driver.
Etsuji Kainuma
Voiced by: Takumi Asahina
Portrayed by: Masao Yoshii
A young male employee at Octopus Ltd. who is secretly obsessed with Misaki.
Master
Voiced by: Kazuya Ichijō
Portrayed by: Seiji Rokkaku
Yūki Kawai
Voiced by: Yuki Kaji
Portrayed by: Shingo Fujimori
Rei Utsubo
Voiced by: Shinshū Fuji
Portrayed by: Shinichi Tsutsumi
Hinako Saba
Voiced by: Chika Anzai
Portrayed by: Yurina Hirate
Hiroshi Suzuki
Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu
Portrayed by: Masanobu Ando
Tsutomu Isaki
Voiced by: Yoshihiro Kanemitsu
Portrayed by: Jun Kurose

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Katsuhisa Minami, The Fable was serialized in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Magazine from November 1, 2014, to November 18, 2019. Kodansha collected its chapters in 22 tankōbon volumes, released from March 6, 2015, to June 5, 2020.

A sequel, titled The Fable: The Second Contact (ザ・ファブル The second contact), ran in Weekly Young Magazine from July 19, 2021, to July 10, 2023. Its first volume was released on November 5, 2021.

A spin-off, also titled The Fable, but written in hiragana (ざ・ふぁぶる) instead of katakana, was published on Comic Days online platform from March 6, 2018, to February 26, 2019. A collected tankōbon, which also includes other stories by Minami, was published on June 5, 2020.

In March 2022, Kodansha USA announced it had licensed the series for English digital publication; in October 2023, it was announced that the manga is planned to be published in print, with the first volume released on April 9, 2024.

Live-action films

A live-action film adaptation directed by Kan Eguchi premiered in Japan on June 21, 2019. The film stars Junichi Okada as Fable.

A sequel film, titled The Fable: A Hitman Who Doesn’t Kill (ザ・ファブル 殺さない殺し屋, Za Faburu Korosanai Koroshiya), was originally announced to premiere on February 5, 2021; however, a month prior to the planned release date, it was announced that the film would be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it eventually premiered on June 18 of that same year.

Anime

An anime television series adaptation was announced on July 10, 2023. It is animated by Tezuka Productions and directed by Ryōsuke Takahashi, with scripts supervised by Yūya Takashima and co-written by Mayumi Morita, character designs handled by Kyuma Oshita, Saki Hasegawa and Junichi Hayama, and music composed by Shuichiro Fukuhiro. The series premiered on April 7, 2024, on Nippon TV and its affiliates, and will run for two consecutive cours. The first opening theme song is "Professionalism feat. Hannya" (Professionalism feat. 般若), performed by ALI, while the first ending theme song is "Odd Numbers", performed by Umeda Cypher. The second opening theme song is "Switch" (スイッチ, Suitchi), performed by Umeda Cypher, while the second ending theme song is "Beyond feat. Mari" by ALI. The adaptation was announced to be produced under Disney's partnership with Kodansha, streaming the series on Disney+ worldwide and Hulu in the United States.

Episodes

Reception

By January 2021, the manga had eight million copies in circulation. By March 2022, the manga had 15 million copies in circulation. By October 2022, the manga had over 20 million copies in circulation.

The Fable won the 41st Kodansha Manga Award for the general category in 2017. Alongside Blue Period, the series ranked 14th on Takarajimasha's Kono Manga ga Sugoi! list of best manga of 2020 for male readers. It was picked as a nominee for "Best Comic" at the 51st Angoulême International Comics Festival, held in 2024.

Notes

References

External links

  • The Fable manga at Young Magazine (in Japanese)
  • The Fable live-action film official website (in Japanese)
  • The Fable anime official website (in Japanese)
  • The Fable (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia

Text submitted to CC-BY-SA license. Source: The Fable by Wikipedia (Historical)



ghbass
 


REDBUBBLE

Owlapps.net - since 2012 - Les chouettes applications du hibou