Norakuro

Norakuro (のらくろ) is a Japanese manga series created by Suihō Tagawa. The titular protagonist, Norakuro, or Norakuro-kun, is a black and white dog. The name Norakuro is an abbreviation of norainu (野良犬, stray dog) and Kurokichi (黒吉, the name of the dog, literally meaning "black lucky").

Norakuro strongly influenced Machiko Hasegawa, the author of Sazae-san, who apprenticed with its author Suihō Tagawa, as well as Fullmetal Alchemist author Hiromu Arakawa.

There is an excerpt that appears in the sixth Kramer's Ergot comics anthology which is the only example of Tagawa's work published in English.^[6]

History

In the original story, the central character Norakuro was a soldier serving in an army of dogs called the "fierce dogs brigade" (猛犬連隊, mōkenrentai). The strip's publication began in 1931, and was clearly based on the Imperial Japanese Army of the time.^[6] The artist, Suihō, had served in the Imperial Army from 1919 to 1922. Norakuro is gradually promoted from private to sergeant in the stories, which are humorous episodes.

Serialization of Norakuro stopped during the Second World War. After the war, due to the popularity of the strip, the character returned in various guises, including a sumo wrestler and a botanist.

Pre-war animated films based on the military Norakuro, and two post-war animated television series of Norakuro, in 1970 and 1987, have also been produced. In the 1970 series, the voice of Norakuro was played by Nobuyo Ōyama, also known as the voice of Doraemon. During the 1980s and early 1990s Norakuro was the mascot of the Physical Training School (Tai-Iku Gakko) of the Japan Self Defense Force.

References

External links

• Norakuro-kun at Studio Pierrot
• Norakuro-kun at Studio Pierrot (Japanese)
• Norakuro Kun at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Norakuro (1970 TV series) (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Norakuro-kun (1987 TV series) (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia