Lucky Man, Volume 3

Lucky Man (Japanese original: Tottemo! Lucky Man) is a boys' gag manga created by Hiroshi Gamō and serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1993 to 1997, running 188 chapters in 16 volumes. The protagonist, Yōichi Oute (also rendered as Yōichi Nagamaru), is the unluckiest middle schooler in all Japan; after being killed when an alien spacecraft crashes onto him, his spirit meets the first-generation Lucky Man from the Lucky Star, and the two merge, gaining the ability to transform by eating a "transformation rakkyo." Once transformed, Lucky Man has no strength and no tactics—his only weapon is "luck," and through fortunate coincidences he defeats wave after wave of invading aliens amid endless gags. Beneath the comedy, the story incorporates the shōnen manga elements of effort, friendship, and victory; as the plot progresses, the stage expands from Earth to the universe, the inner universe, and even the great universe, adding settings such as the Hero Association, the Sixteen Supermen, and the Cosmic God, with later chapters featuring a multiverse tournament, all layered with homages to tokusatsu heroes and metafictional jabs. This volume is the third in the series and belongs to the early part of the story; the "Shōnen Jump Comics" edition arranges the chapters in serialization order, with fast pacing and episodic gag battles. The Taiwanese Chinese edition was published by Da Ran Culture under the title Salted Egg Superman in 16 volumes; after Hong Kong's TVB aired the anime, "Lucky Man" became the common Chinese title in Chinese-speaking regions.