Ohayō! Spank

Ohayō! Spank (おはよう!スパンク, Ohayō! Supanku, lit. Good morning! Spank) is a Japanese shōjo manga written by Shun'ichi Yukimuro and drawn by Shizue Takanashi. The series has been adapted as an anime television series, broadcast in Japan from 1981 to 1982, and a theatrical movie released in 1982. In 1981, it received the Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo and shōnen.^[1]

Story

Spank (voiced by Noriko Tsukase), the main character, is a dog whose owner went missing on the high seas. While awaiting his return Spank strays at the beach everyday. One day he meets Aiko Morimura (voiced by Mari Okamoto), a junior high school student, whose father went also missing on a yacht tour ten years ago. Her mother, a designer for hats, left for Paris, leaving Aiko in the care of her uncle, Mr Fujinami. Abandoned, Aiko believes that her father is still alive and awaits his return. She's recently lost her pet dog, Papi, which was a good-bye present from her mother, in a car accident leaving her totally devastated. In the course of the anime Spank begins to lighten up her gloomy mood as he is a clumsy and merry dog with lots of heart. She also falls in love with a friend of Spank's missing owner. Whereas, Spank finds his love for the pet cat of Anna's classmate.

Ohayō! Spank also found tremendous popularity outside Japan, dubbed into French (as Claire et Tipoune), German (as Hallo! Kurt), Spanish, Italian (as Hello! Spank), Korean(as Hello Spank! as 헬로 스팽크!), and Arabic (as مغامرات سبانك), but both anime and manga remains unreleased in English.

Characters

• Spank The main protagonist of the series. A little white dog with black/brown ears. Spank is a really strange dog that can fall in love of a cat and walk like humans. At the end he loves with Taty, the pink dog (that she his real love interest). Will be protagonist also the other series as spin-offs, with especially his animal friends and no masters.
• Aiko Morimura A 14-year-old girl. She is Spank's master.
• Torakichi A cat rival and friend of Spank. Torakichi and Spank always fight for Cat because they both love her. Prove to always be good friends from the beginning.
• Shinako Yoshimura Aiko and Ryo's friend. She enjoys art and maybe she's a crush on Ryo.
• Ryoichi Shinoda Aiko and Shinako's friend. He enjoys art like her friend Shinako.
• Seiya Tsukahara Baron's master.
• Serino Mihara A snob rich girl. She has the same age of Aiko and her pet is a female cat named Cat.
• Cat A female cat snob like her master Serino. Torakichi and Spank have a crush on her.
• Fan Fan A cute little dog, Spank has crush on her and Fan Fan also love him.
• Baron A dog friend of Torakichi and Spank. Is Seiya's dog.

References

1. ↑ Joel Hahn. "Kodansha Manga Awards". Comic Book Awards Almanac. Archived from the original on 2007-08-16. Retrieved 2007-08-21. 

External links

• Ohayō! Spank (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Ohayō! Spank (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Ohayo! Spank at the Big Cartoon DataBase