Proper Japanese Title: コミック乱ツインズ
Comic Ran Twins is a monthly jidaigeki manga magazine that originally began as a special issue of Comic Ran and was published as part of that series' numbering for 16 issues from 2001-2002 (as 増刊コミック乱). In late 2002 (cover dated 2003), Twins was officially relaunched as the second independent magazine in the Ran line. It quickly went on to have its own special issue that for a time was the third magazine (Zōkan Comic Ran Twins: Sengoku Bushō Retsuden).
Initially Twins was very similar to Ran in being prominently headlined by a popular Takao Saito adaption of a historical novel series by Shōtarō Ikenami. In this case the series was Shikakenin: Fujieda Baian and it received the cover for virtually every issue in the first few years. In 2006 the cover feature began to rotate through several series' but Fujieda Baian remained the primary headliner. By 2011 it began once again to receive virtually every cover and this lasted until the series ended in early 2015 when it officially went on hiatus. Major authors regularly appearing in the magazine during this first era included Hiroshi Hirata, Kenji Okamura, Shigeru Tsuchiyama and George Akiyama.
Along with Golgo 13 and Onihei Hankachō, Baian had been one of Saito's major ongoing works in the 21st century but with his advanced age and the loss of major members of Saito Pro the series was announced to not be returning from hiatus in 2016 for Saito's health. Instead, a new adaption by Takemura Yūji ran from 2016-2021. With the loss of Saito's magazine-launching series and the end of Comic Ran Twins: Sengoku Bushō Retsuden, the variance of cover features significantly increased and major authors in the magazine who became regular headliners included Cozoh Hashimoto, Hiroshi Kadota, Seisaku Kano, Yamamoto Yasuhito, Yamasaki Hiromi, Takase Rie and Ochiai Yusuke. Though Baian no longer remained the face of the magazine, adapations of Ikenami writings remained a heavy focus. As with the other Ran magazines, most authors were already industry veterans decades into their careers.
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