Hero Tales

 is a Japanese manga series written by Huang Jin Zhou (a unit composed of Hiromu Arakawa, Genco, and Studio Flag) and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa. It was serialized in Square Enix's "Gangan Powered" and later moved to "Monthly Shōnen Gangan", when the magazine was closed. The motif of the story was inspired by Chinese wuxia drama and novels. The world view is rooted in Chinese folklore and history, as well as having an element of fantasy.
Plot.
Manga.
A period piece, "Jūshin Enbu" features Taitou, a young man who hates the empire that rules at the time, with his sister Laila as they learn of a mysterious power Taitou holds, unbeknownst to him. Taitou is the incarnation of a mysterious star that grants him a huge amount of power that he has yet to fully master. Joining them is Ryuukou, who has power similar to Taitou, just more honed.
After Taitou's coming of age ceremony, which required him being beaten by Ryuukou, he is given the Kenkaranpu, described as a conqueror's sword, which Taitou is not even capable of drawing. Soon after, he and Laila are greeted by a man named Shimei, who wants to take the sword. After a quick exchange of blows, Shimei explains the source of Taitou's power - the star Hagun, one of the most powerful Hokushin-Tenkun. When Shimei uses his own sword's power to cause Laila to stop breathing, Taitou becomes so angry he releases Hagun's power, draws Kenkaranpu and pins Shimei to the wall by throwing the Kenkaranpu through his stomach. He then turns to Ryuukou and attacks. Despite his best efforts, Ryuukou cannot overcome Hagun's power. It is only a resuscitated Laila's intervention (along with a nasty head butt) that brings Taitou to his senses. However, they all soon learn that Shimei had escaped with the sword.
At midnight, Taitou sneaks out to recover the sword. As he leaves, Ryuukou and Laila quickly join him on his journey. As they travel, they come to the canal town of Jousei. While they're there, Ryuukou attempts to teach Taitou how to control his ki, and with it, the power of his star. When you don't refine and focus the power, it exits the body any way it can, leaving the body covered with cuts from the power exiting. But Taito is too impatient to learn Ryuukou's way, who was trained by monks. The three are living in an inn in the refugee section of town, right next to the canal. It starts raining hard, and Ryuukou worries about the levee walls holding. At the inn, the three meet Koyou, a handsome ship captain, who does ladies make-up for entertainment. As they talk, the city officials close the inner canal gates to protect their harbor, not caring that it puts the refugee section in danger of being flooded. When the refugees try to enter the city for safety, they are refused access, even as the levee bursts right into the section. Taitou tells Ryuukou to break the flood gates to release the pressure, because he can control his ki. He does so, but is still dangling over the water when a downed tree hits a bridge, breaks it, and heads towards him. Taitou, in a reckless attempt to save his friend, leaps from the gate walls and smashes the debris, unfortunately forgetting to attach himself to something, and so falls into the canal. Ryuukou jumps in after him, and pulls him onto a floating piece of wood, where he then starts to berate him for almost sacrificing himself, saying he should have left him. Taitou is explaining that he could not abandon a friend like that, when their piece of wood hits an obstruction and disintegrates. Taitou starts to drown, and Ryuukou finds the current too strong for him to carry both of them as he is, and Taitou glimpses the symbol of a star on his chest before he falls unconscious.
Later, Taitou finds out that Laila had found Koyou, the man from the inn, and had gotten his help in saving the two. He then rounds on Ryuukou, asking why he had been hiding that he was one of the Hokushin-Tenkun. Ryuukou just felt like the right time never came up, revealing the his star is "Bukyoku", the star right next to "Hagun". They are joined by Laila and Koyou, who directs their attention to his "modest ship", a massive barge he calls "Touga". He then loads all the refugees onto it, promising to take care of them. By this time Shimei has reached the capital and Shogun Kiero Hakuhou, who he then presents with the Kenkaranpu.
Much of the storyline revolves around the revelations of an ancient prophecy concerning the Stars, which relate to the seven stars in the Big Dipper constellation, being given human form at a time of crisis for humanity. Although all seven of the Stars are superhuman fighters, two of them are known as the Noble Spirits, and according to destiny will fight each other to take control of the Empire. As the various Stars identities are revealed, they appear to ally themselves to either Keiro (whose star is Tonrou) or Taitou (whose star is Hagun). Because of the cruelty of the previous rulers of the Empire, and many corrupt officials still in power, Keiro has chosen to act with the prophecy and try to become Emperor himself. Taitou, although briefly considering this, ultimately rejects the prophecy entirely, choosing to forge his own destiny.
The other Stars are Ryuukou, who grew up in the same village as Taitou; Hosei, who trained under a strong woman warrior who had learned much about the prophecy of the Stars; Koyou, who spends most of the story on his barge ship; Rinmei, a woman who loves Ryuukou and has anger management issues; and Shoukakou, a mysterious man in the capital city who at first seems to be working for Keiro. The story also involves dealing with grief, loss, responsibility, and starting over even when you feel the weight of your sins means you cannot take another step.
Anime.
In the anime, Shogun/General Keiro under cover of dark tries to steal the Kenkaranpu from Tian Long temple. In doing this he massacres dozens of the ascetic monks that were living out their vows of protection and love behind the Tian Long temple's walls, but also, Keiro is confronted by the plucky Taito for the first of their 4 face offs over the 26 episodes.
There are some differences between the plot of the manga and the anime, including which characters live or die, who fights when and where, and how the final battles play out. For example, in the anime, Keiro actually manages to absorb Shimei inside of himself, and gains supernatural powers, controlling Ryuukou against his will and turning some people into demons. Although the overall impact of the battle between Keiro and Taitou is largely the same in both the manga and the anime, the fine details are not. Also, in the manga, there appears to be seven years between the end of the battle between Keiro and Taitou and the final scenes. In the anime, there's an unspecified time skip, but the characters don't appear to have aged significantly, so it wouldn't seem to be as long as seven years.
Production.
The origins of "Hero Tales" came from a work by doujin group "Dennou Sanzoku Bukando"(電脳山賊武漢堂) called "Shishi Juushin Enbu"(獅子獣神演武). The work is an illustrated net novel and later released as a doujinshi. Dennou Sanzoku Bukando is the doujin group formed by Hiromu Arakawa and Zhang Fei Long. Juushin Embu is announced after seven years of conceptualizing and planning.
The events that led to the announcement of Juushin Embu (from Hiromu Arakawa interview, Pafu -March 2007 issue): In 2005, Huang Jin Zhou brought the plan to Hiromu which is then brought to Square Enix. In the beginning of the project, Hiromu was only in charge of character design. Huang Jin Zhou took care of other matters such as creating the scenario. Before the serialization, Hiromu and Studio Flag took seven years to conceptualize this original story.
Media.
Manga.
"Hero Tales" is authored by Huang Jin Zhou (a unit composed of Hiromu Arakawa, Genco, and Studio Flag) and illustrated by Arakawa. The manga was serialized in Square Enix's "Gangan Powered" from October 21, 2006 to February 21, 2009. It was then serialized in "Monthly Shōnen Gangan" from May 12, 2009 to August 12, 2010. Square Enix collected its chapters in five "tankōbon" volumes, released from August 11, 2007 to November 22, 2010.
The first "tankōbon" was published in English by Yen Press in October, 2009 and began serializing in Yen Plus February 2009 issue.
Anime.
On October 7, 2007, an anime series based on the manga premiered in TV Tokyo under the title of "Juushin Embu -HERO TALES-"(獣神演武 -HERO TALES-). The series is produced by Studio Flag and directed by Osamu Sekita. Manga illustrator Hiromu Arakawa was also in charge of making the characters designs. With a total of 26 episodes, the anime aired from October 7, 2007 to March 30, 2008. On January 7, 2010, Funimation Entertainment announced that it has acquired the anime. The series made its North American television debut on May 17, 2011 on the Funimation Channel.
Opening theme
Ending theme
Video game.
A game called Juushin Enbu DS (獣神演武DS) was released for the Nintendo DS by Maxtra Games in November 22, 2007 exclusively in Japan.