King of Bandit Jing

King of Bandit Jing is a seven volume manga series by Yuichi Kumakura, and has been adapted into a 13 episode anime.

King of Bandit Jing is a series of short, usually disconnected stories starring the eponymous young boy. His partner is a wisecracking crow named Kir who can transform into a Wave Motion Gun by fusing with Jing's arm; this is the only supernatural power that Jing possesses. Although his reputation seems to extend throughout the universe of the series, many enemies underestimate Jing, not expecting the "great King of Bandits" to be a "little kid".

Each story focuses a new treasure or object that Jing is seeking. He is accompanied by a woman or girl (affectionately referred to as "Jing Girl") somewhere along the way on his quest for this item, and an enemy that either wants to protect what it is he intends to steal or get to it before he does. Much of the appeal of the series comes from the fantastic and often surreal world that Jing lives in, bordering on the Expressionist style.

The manga series was followed by a sequel series known as King of Bandit Jing: Twilight Tales. The closest that the anime series got to a sequel was an OAV called King of Bandit Jing: Seventh Heaven which somehow managed to be even more incomprehensible than the main series was.


 * Aborted Arc - The second story arc ends with Sherry vowing revenge on Jing. She never appears again.
 * An Aesop - Every episode (or story arc) ends with one of these.
 * Art Evolution - Jing's design alone changes drastically over the course of the manga.
 * Badass Longcoat - Jing's. It's also bulletproof.
 * Beach Episode - Episode 9 is a rather atypical example.
 * But Now I Must Go - Jing does this to pretty much every single one of the Jing Girls.
 * Calling Your Attacks - "Gimmie a Kir Royale!"
 * Chick Magnet - In most of the different arcs, any major female character (or "Jing Girl") will fall for Jing.
 * Chivalrous Pervert - Kir
 * A Day in the Limelight - Kir gets one in Episode 9, easily the most plot driven episode in the series.
 * Dances and Balls - The episode "The Masquerade Ball of Zaza" features one.
 * Defeat by Modesty - Jing defeats his first-round opponent in "The Masquerade Ball of Zaza" by snatching off the rear end of his armor.
 * Excalibur in the Rust - The key to a Humongous Mecha was disgused as a worn down sword.
 * The Faceless - Played with in the Zaza arc, a masked tournament.
 * Funny Animal - a few, notable in the Sungria chapters/episode.
 * Genre Savvy - When Kir sees a bunch of coffins opening and asks, "Is this the part where all the mummies come out and get us?"
 * Gentleman Thief - Jing, duh.
 * Girl of the Week - The Jing Girls.
 * Gratuitous Foreign Language - The manga is littered with signs in multiple languages and scripts. Most if not all of them are nonsense anyway. Furthermore, the sound effects are written in both English and Japanese - sometimes in the same panel.
 * Impossible Thief - When Jing sets his sights on something, he'll gain access to it somehow. Whether he takes it is a different matter entirely.
 * To demonstrate he has stolen things such as 'Time', 'Eternal Life', he once stole 'desire' from a personification of Greed.
 * Granted, a good number of the things he steals are metaphorical (like the aforementioned 'Time'), but it doesn't make his feats any less amazing
 * I Will Wait for You - Stir from "The Masquerade Ball of Zaza" refuses to dance with other men at the ball, implying that she is reserving her next dance for the time when Jing returns, and will wait for him.
 * Just a Kid - Most of the characters don't take Jing seriously because of this.
 * Made of Explodium - The Por Vora.
 * Masquerade Ball - Again, a huge portion of "The Masquerade Ball of Zaza" is dedicated to this.
 * McGuffin - All the episodes revolve around one of these.
 * Meaningful Name - All of the main and recurring characters are named after alcoholic beverages. Also, the episodes are numbered as "Shots" and Kir's Wave Motion Gun is called "Kir Royale".
 * No Ending - Neither the manga nor the anime have an actual ending.
 * Non-Human Sidekick - Kir, Jing's perverted bird sidekick.
 * One-Winged Angel - Adonis.
 * Prison Episode: When Jing heads to the prison Seventh Heaven in order to find Campari and steal his dream-making power.
 * Ridiculously Human Robot: The Jing Girl in the Reviva arc is only revealed to be an automaton when she winds down and has to be fixed by her creator. Her search for the immortality formula made the illusion even more convincing.
 * The Rival - Every arc has someone either competing with Jing for the McGuffin or he already has it and is trying to protect it from Jing.
 * Samus Is a Girl -.
 * Schizo-Tech - Technology varies wildly from place to place.
 * Shout-Out - In episode 9, Kir can be heard singing the Theme song for 'I dream of Jeannie' while sweeping.
 * Spoiler Opening - The OP sequence of the anime series actually contains scenes from every story in the show, albeit highly stylized and out of context.
 * Talking Animal - Kir and many other non-human characters in the series.
 * Theme Naming - Alcoholic beverages. It's not too far fetched to consider the entire show as a drunkard's hallucination.
 * It doesn't only apply to the characters - volumes of the manga are "bottles," and individual chapters are "shots."
 * Tournament Arc - The story arc "The Masquerade Ball of Zaza."
 * Transformation Sequence - Every time Jing attacks.
 * Wave Motion Gun - Kir can turn into one of these when he fuses with Jing's arm.
 * What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic - The crystal with the embedded image of a woman with long hair that Jing carries around is never explained. The only hint is that it's connected to Jing's mother.
 * There are even some theories that the woman in the crystal is his mother.
 * Who Wants to Live Forever? - The Aesop of the Eternal City Of Reviva arc.
 * What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs? - Alcohol, in specific, possibly Absinthe with extra doses of LSD or something.