Gokudo the Adventurer
ゴクドーくん漫遊記, Gokudō-kun Man'yūki, aka “Gokudo-kun the Adventurer”
We’re looking at a Japanese action fantasy/comedy light novel series written by Usagi Nakamura and illustrated by Takeru Kirishima that was adapted to the anime series which the now-defunct Trans Arts produced (link goes to Anime News Network) and aired on TV Tokyo from spring 1999 to late September 1999, with a total of 26 episodes… long before light novels were trending (and also Sword Art Online), as Kadokawa Shoten first serialized it in their light novel magazine Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko… we call it Gokudo the Adventurer!
The story focuses on an adventurer named Gokudo Yuccot Kikansky (Akira Ishida, Japanese; Daniel K. Harrison, English). Unlike most protagonists, he is an antihero, willing to resort to violence to fulfill his agenda. He does not hesitate to abuse the needs of people, sell out his friends to save himself, run away from any dangers, or ditch others who helped him if he does not have any more interest in them. His life starts to change when he finds a magical Genie named Djinn (Yutaka Shimaka — male form, Japanese; Mami Kingetsu — female form, Japanese; Greg Wolfe — male form, English; Stacie Lynn Renna — female form, first two episodes, English; Jessica Calvello — female form, rest of the series, English) who wants to grant him three wishes. While people would benefit from having three wishes, in his case it leads him to a lot of trouble, and it doesn't take long before he tries to escape from Djinn and every other person he meets.
Other important characters are the Old Seer (or the Queen of the Magic World — Junko Hori, Japanese (deceased 2024); Sonny Weil, English), who constantly appears out of nowhere, seemingly only to make Gokudo suffer more; Rubette La Lette (Sayuri Yoshida, Japanese; Debora Rabbai, English), a noble girl with a tomboy attitude who sees Gokudo as a rival; and Prince (called Niari by the Old Seer — Shin-ichiro Miki, Japanese; Ted Lewis, English), a mage much better at handling women than Gokudo will ever be.
In 2001, AnimeWorks (today Media Blasters) translated and released the anime on DVD as simply Gokudo. In mid-2016, Discotek Media announced it had licensed the anime from Enoki Films. A DVD collection was released in late September of that year.
Fun fact: Shin-ichiro Miki and Ted Lewis are known for voicing Kojiro (“James”) in the Pokémon anime series before the ninth season and Horizons. After the first eight episodes, Lewis left the anime series, and the role went to Eric Stuart.
The anime series is available on Crunchyroll, though we still prefer Netflix and Disney+ (including Hulu). On Netflix, you will see the text reading “A Netflix Original (Anime) Series” a lot. That’s it for this review of the anime series, and don’t forget to subscribe to Shinkansen Retrogamer, and I hope you bought snacks for the Super Bowl. I’ll soon be off to watch the Chiefs kick some Eagle asses in the Super Bowl this weekend.