Akaba Ken is a top-rank stock-car driver who was involved in a horrific accident, which killed 6 spectators. He was badly hurt, but he survived... more>> and promised his younger sister that he would give up racing. He goes to America to help his father develop a new Formula 1 racer, but in the testing of the car runs at speeds that set records – so the pressure is on for him to return to racing, this time in the F-1 circuit. He has supporters, but there are also those who don’t want him to come back, including those who caused the original crash… <<less

Kyouto, April 1928. Oshikouji Ryu (Ryu means dragon in Japanese, the title Ron is the Chinese pronunciation of dragon (Long)) is 17 years old, and is called 'Genius swordman, Dragon of Kyouto'. He will inherit the property of the noble Oshikouji family, but prefers practising Kendou. He enters a school for training Kendou swordman, but the seniors of school are very harsh and intolerable. But Ryu doesn't surrender and overcomes the problems, later on he impresses his seniors and they begin to like him.... more>>

Kosuzu, a geisha in Gion (famous red-light district in Kyouto), is Ryu's childhood friend. Ryu and Kosuzu love each other, but Ryu's uncle Takuma came in between and made Kosuzu his second wife. But their lives were still tied together, through Kyouto and the Japanese Imperialism. Tatsuru Tei, sent to Toukyou because of her family's debt, meets Ryu by accident. Ryu and his friends save her from a drunken mob, and Ryu teaches her never to give up even when the situation seems hopeless. She later becomes housemaid of an Oshikouji resident. When Ryu becomes a senior in school, he and Tatsuru fall in love. He tells his father he wants to marry Tei, but Kazuma (Ryu's father) will only allow him to marry her and return home after he earns 100 Yen (present value being about 2,500$). So Ryu searches for a job, but that's not easy as the Great Depression makes life very hard. <<less