Which brings us to the September 15th, 2009 (released about 2 weeks before the cover date.) issue of Weekly Manga Action (where Shin-chan was serialized from 1990 - 2000.)

As part of the cross-promotion, the TV anime had a string of episodes throughout September 2009 that tied into Ballad, in which Shin and company would time travel and meet child versions of Ren and Ijiri. Not the versions of them from "Warring States, but from "Ballad".

Ballad was being heavily cross-promoted in Shin-chan space at the time. Here are the September and October 2009 issues of Monthly Manga Town, where Crayon Shin-chan had been serialized since December of 2000.

The main series Crayon Shin-chan characters were swapped out with live action counterparts (the arrows in this photo will explain), but Ballad is otherwise an 𝑒𝑥𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑙𝑦 faithful adaptation of "Warring States." The other characters even retain their names.

The film was so acclaimed in Japan that it was actually adapted into a live action film, Ballad, in 2009.

The 2002 Crayon Shin-chan film "Battle of the Warring States" has Shin-chan and his family being transported back in time to feudal Japan. The main characters they meet in this time period are Ren & Ijiri, shown in this pic.

This manga panel shows a manga adaptation of a TV anime adaptation of a live action film adaptation of characters from an animated film. 🤔I will explain.

I finished Emio - The Smiling Man last night and am still thinking about it. This story is going to stick with me for a while. #emio #famicomdetectiveclub

the box art Japan got