NG Knight Ramune & 40

NG Knight Ramune & 40 (NG騎士ラムネ&40, NG Naito Ramune & 40) is a Japanese anime television series of 1990. It was one of the Ramune group of television shows and OVAs, and the "NG" in the title stands for "new generation". In all, there were 3 OVA series (NG Knight Ramune & 40 EX, NG Knight Ramune & 40 DX, VS Knight Ramune & 40 Fresh) and a sequel anime television series (VS Knight Ramune & 40 Fire). The original concept for the show was developed by Takehiko Ito, much of the story was written by Satoru Akahori, and the mecha design was done by Rei Nakahara. (Collectively this team is known as "B3".) All anime and OVA in the series were produced by Starchild Records, and the show was broadcast on TV Tokyo from April 6, 1990 to January 4, 1991. On December 12, 2019, it was announced that Discotek Media has acquired the license for North America. This includes the anime and the OVAs. The anime and the OVAs have been made available for streaming on Crunchyroll for North American viewers.

The main storyline of the series involves a boy named Baba Ramune who is sucked into the video game "King Sccasher." Ramune is a blood relative of the hero "Ramuness," and in the program, he is destined to save the world from the evil Don Harumage. "Ramune" is the name of a popular, lemon-flavored Japanese carbonated drink, and most character names in the series are based on drinks, such as the character Milk. The name "Scassher" is based on the name of a competitor to Ramune, namely "Lemon Squash", a drink not franchised in America whose name is based on that of "Orange Crush", which is. This show is not related to the anime series Ramune of 2005.

NG Knight Ramune & 40
Ramune is an ordinary 4th-grade boy who loves playing video games. He buys one from a peddler girl and helps her sell the rest. At home, he plays the game called "King Sccasher" & beats it. The peddler girl then comes out of the TV screen and asks for his help, calling him "The Blood Relative of the Chosen Hero Ramuness". She is Princess Milk and takes him to Hara-Hara World where his role is to revive the Guardian Knights. To do this, he had to find and unlock the shrine which held Tama-Q, a robot who became Ramuness' Advisor Robot, and the key to freeing the Guardian Knights. All of the Knights are free-thinking mechas except for King Sccasher which is piloted by Ramuness. Opposing Ramuness are Don Harumage and his minions Da Cider and Lesuka.

NG Knight Ramune & 40 EX: Biku Biku Triangle Ai no Arashi Daisakusen
Ramune has returned to Earth with no memory of his adventures in Hara-Hara world and Doki-Doki space. The remains of Gobuhriki find their way to Earth, and awaken the spirit of Don Harumage. While Cocoa builds a fighting vehicle with stuff she finds around Tokyo, Milk, and Leska set off to find Ramune and Da Cider to save the day before the new Gobuhriki is revived and destroys the Earth.

NG Knight Ramune & 40 DX: Wakuwaku Jikuu - Honoo no Daisousasen
Ramune and Da Cider head off to Puff-Puff Palace to rescue two beautiful barely clothed maidens, Gold Mountain and Silver Mountain- the Mountain Duo. This of course infuriates Milk and Leska, who with a rather confused and unwilling Cocoa "transform" into "Seinaru Milky", "Seinaru Cacao", and "Seinaru Lemon". The three then head after their would-be boyfriends to exact their revenge.

TV Anime
At the stage of the initial proposal, it was tentatively titled "Takamaru of Arabia", and it was an adventure story with a ninja boy as the main character in the world view of Arabian Nights, but it was not a robot animation. After that, it became a project called "SB Knight Acorn", which is like a fantasy robot animation, and finally came to fruition as this work.

Staff (NG Knight Ramune & 40)

 * Planning: Toshihiko Sato
 * Director: Hiroshi Negishi
 * Series composition: Brazaoppo
 * Series Composition: Satoru Akahori
 * Character draft: Takehiko Ito
 * Character design: Takuya Saito
 * Mechanical design: Rei Nakahara
 * Sound Director: Hideyuki Tanaka
 * Art Director: Shinichi Nagafusa
 * Music: Tadashige Matsui, Ryutetsushi
 * Music Producer: Yuji Ozeki (Gabby Office)
 * Production Producer: Masaru Umehara
 * Literary setting: Yoshihiro Akahori
 * Public Relations: Yuka Takatsuka (TV Tokyo)
 * Producers: Mutsuo Shimizu (TV Tokyo), Ritsushi Yamazaki (ASATSU), Hiroshi Kato (Ashi Pro)
 * Production: TV Tokyo, ASATSU, Ashi Production

OVA
On the other hand, it later led to media mix development such as OVA and radio drama. This was one of the triggers, and since then, Hiroshi Negishi and Satoru Akahori have had more opportunities to work together as hit makers.

NG Knight Ramune & 40 DX: Wakuwaku Jikuu - Honoo no Daisousasen
After that, in 1996 "VS Knight Ramune & 40 Flames" was produced as the first new TV animation version in six years.

Video games
NG Knight Ramune & 40 appeared in the 2009 crossover video game Super Robot Wars NEO featuring much of the main cast. It later appeared as one of the beginning titles used the multi-chapter release Super Robot Wars: Operation Extend which borrows many features from NEO.

Trivia
to be added.

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