is a Japanese motorbike racing-themed manga series written and illustrated by Shuichi Shigeno. It was serialized in Kodansha's shà Ânen manga magazine Weekly Shà Ânen Magazine from 1983 to 1991, with its chapters collected in 38 tankà Âbon volumes.
Earlier parts of the story focus both on high school life as well as street racing. At first the characters are illegal street racers (Japanese: hashiriya) that race on public roads, particularly on the winding mountain roads known as tà Âge. Those kind of racers were called "rolling-zoku", a type of bà Âsà Âzoku, and were seen as a social problem in Japan. Later parts of the story revolve around professional motorcycle racing events held on road circuits like the All Japan Road Race Championship.
Gun Koma, a high school student with a passion for motorcycles, begins as a street racer riding on mountain roads with his friends and rivals. As he competes in illegal street races, Gun develops his riding skills and becomes determined to become a professional racer. During this time, he also begins a relationship with Ai Itou, and their relationship develops alongside his racing career.
Gun's career progresses when he enters official competitions, including endurance races such as the Suzuka 4-Hour Endurance Race, where he must work together with his rival Hideyoshi Hijiri as teammates. As he continues racing, the story shifts to professional circuit racing, following Gun as he competes in the All Japan Road Race Championship and later advances to international competition in the Road Racing World Championship.
Over time, Gun competes against stronger rivals, culminating in his participation in the GP500 class world championship as he strives to become world champion.
Written and illustrated by Shuichi Shigeno, Bari Bari Densetsu was serialized in Kodansha's Weekly Shà Ânen Magazine from March 9, 1983, to July 17, 1991. Kodansha collected its chapters in thirty-eight tankà Âbon volumes, released from October 14, 1983, to August 6, 1991.
A two-episode original video animation (OVA) adaptation produced by Pierrot, Part I: Tsukuba and Part II: Suzuka, was released in 1986. The episodes were later re-edited and released in theaters in August 1987 by Nippon Herald (now part of Kadokawa Pictures).
A Blu-Ray version was released in Japan on July 21, 2023.
Two video games were released:
Gun Koma also appears as a guest character in Namco's MotoGP (2000) video game, based on the 1999 season.
In 1985, it won the ninth Kodansha Manga Award for the shà Ânen category. As of April 2018, collected tankà Âbon volumes of the Bari Bari Densetsu manga series had over 26 million copies in circulation.
Japanese motorcycle racer Shinya Nakano credited his use of the number 56 throughout his career to Gun Koma also using the same number in the road racing portions of the manga.