Family!
Family! | |
ファミリ! (Famirī!) | |
---|---|
Genre | Slice of life, comedy |
Manga | |
Written by | Taeko Watanabe |
Published by | Shogakukan |
Demographic | Shōjo |
Imprint | Flower Comics |
Magazine | Bessatsu Shōjo Comic |
Original run | July 1981 – September 1985 |
Volumes | 11 |
Anime television series | |
Oh! Family | |
Directed by | Masamune Ochiai (Series Director) |
Produced by |
Hyota Ezu (TV Tokyo) Takashi Kuoka (KnacK) |
Music by | Tadashige Matsui |
Studio | Knack Productions |
Original network | TV Tokyo |
Original run | 6 October 1986 – 30 March 1987 |
Episodes | 26 |
Family! (ファミリー!, Famirī!) is a manga series written and illustrated by Kaze Hikaru's author Taeko Watanabe.[1][2] It follows the life of a conventionally dysfunctional family whose parents were as childish as their children were mature, but which always managed to live happily nevertheless. It was adapted to a TV anime series titled Oh! Family (Oh!ファミリー, Oh! Famirī) which consists of 26 episodes and was directed by Masamune Ochiai.
Outside Japan, the anime had a significant success in Italy, where it was broadcast with the title Che famiglia è questa Family.[1][2]
Plot
The story revolves around the Andersons, an American family which resided in Los Angeles, California. Everything was turned upside down when a strange boy named Jonathan came with his dog Adam, and claimed to be an illegitimate son of Wilfred Anderson, the wimpy father of the family. That turned out not to be true, but aside from his trickery, Jonathan's kind nature won over the family and they decided to adopt him (and his dog, too).
The family had got involved in several misadventures, but despite their dysfunction, they remained a loving family and their relationships with each other and other people even got strengthened.
Characters
- Wilfred "Freddy" Anderson (ウィルフレッド・アンダーソン Wirufureddo Andāson)
- Voiced by: Kei Tomiyama
- Also called Freddy (フレディ Furedi), a wimpy father who wasn't much of role model material, but still cared a lot about his family. He got into big trouble when Jonathan came and claimed to be his illegitimate son. Despite his best effort to cross his heart, everyone thought that was true until Jonathan admitted it himself, although other members (including his own wife Sharen and excluding his daughter Fee), wasn't bothered that much by Jonathan's presence. Wilfred's path to marrying Sharen had been quite adverse as he had nearly got beaten to death by her sister, but in the end, the wimpy guy had proven his worth with his determination, and had a family with three children, although he got scarred and dreaded his sister-in-law for life.
- Sharen Anderson (シェレン・アンダーソン Sheren Andāson)
- Voiced by: Sanae Takagi
- Née Witherby (ウィザビー Wizabī), she was the mother of the family. Back when her children, Kay and Fee, had been toddlers, she proved to be decent mother material, but as they had grown into teenagers, she, for some reason, turned into a carefree, oblivious, infantile woman who liked dressing up as Cookie Monster (called Happy Monster in the anime). She had an insanely protective sister who had been willing to beat her boyfriends to a pulp to see if they would be strong-willed enough to protect her, and Wilfred seemed to be the only one.
- Fee Anderson (フィー・アンダーソン Fī Andāson)
- Voiced by: Sumi Shimamoto
- The essential lead character of the story, a 15-year-old tomboy who was the middle child of the Anderson family. She was very boyish and had always been that way since childhood, but she gradually showed her feminine side since she dated Ralph. She didn't perform that well in school and frequently got D's in Spanish. She was the main straight man character of the story, who tried her best to keep other Andersons in check, despite her own rashness. She cared a lot about other people, although some may have taken it as being annoyingly nosy. When Jonathan came, she was the only one who was suspicious of his story (while Wilfred himself could do nothing but crying and begging for understanding), and it was her who exposed Jonathan. In the end however, she warmed up to him like everyone else (even Wilfred) had always been since the beginning, despite the fact that they fought a lot.
- Kay Anderson (ケイ・アンダーソン Kei Andāson)
- Voiced by: Shigeru Nakahara
- The Andersons' eldest child who was 17 years old. He cared a lot about her sister Fee and they were close, to the point that Fee actually got irritated when he started dating again. While Fee was boyish, he was girlish and gentle. When they were kids, Fee would refuse to wear the dresses her parents'd bought; Kay had once tried one, and after Fee'd told him that he'd looked good in it, he'd started to embrace his femininity and that enabled him to express himself freely as a gay man. Ralph was one of his boyfriend.
- Tracy Anderson (トレーシー・アンダーソン Torēshī Andāson)
- Voiced by: Naoko Matsui
- The Andersons' youngest daughter, she was a pretty, but outspoken, 7-year-old girl. Her appearance was admired by her classmates, but she was only interested in adult men. She was quite mature for a 7-year-old when speaking to adults, but she still had her childlike hobbies. She was once cast for a TV role for her straightforward attitude, but also for her surprisingly acting talent, but that didn't interest her for long. She basically proved to be completely fearless when being kidnapped that one time, although the kidnapper was just a rebellious guy who was trying to be himself against his mother's will; she even used her wisdom to guide the kidnapper through his soul-searching.
- Jonathan Allen (ジョナサン・アレン Jonasan Aren)
- Voiced by: Masako Sugaya
- A strange boy who claimed to be Wilfred's illegitimate son out of the blue one day. He was incredibly astute for a 6-year-old as he could think of such trickery to fool a whole family into believing, although in all fairness, the Andersons were simply either carefree or just oblivious. The only one who was always suspicious of him was Fee. She later found out the truth, upon learning which he and his dog Adam left immediately. It turned out that while other Andersons didn't mind his presence at all, Fee, who Jonathan cared about the most, was the only one who wasn't even trying to being nice to him. And when she learned, she went on in search for him. The Andersons managed to rescue Jonathan and Adam out of pit which the two fell into in search for a new home. It was revealed later that he had to leave his fostering uncle's family because they wanted to kill Adam. At the end of the series, Jonathan had to left, albeit in tearful farewell, the Andersons, to go and live with his biological father.
- Adam (アダム Adamu)
- Voiced by: Ikuya Sawaki
- A big but cowardly dog who was very intelligent for a dog (because he could understand humans and communicate with them to some extent with sign language), but still stupid by human standard. He was Jonathan's closest friend growing up. He had no romantic interest in dogs, which was shown when he tried to approach Jonathan's teacher (although Fee and Jonathan misunderstood and tried to set him up with her dog instead), but unfortunately for him, she already had a boyfriend.
- Ralph McGarry (レイフ・マクギャリー Reifu MakuGyarī)
- Voiced by: Keiichi Nanba
- Fee's boyfriend. He was originally in a relationship with Kay, until he got to know his tomboy sister. He then broke up with Kay (they still remained good friends), developed feelings for Fee and eventually turned straight, although he still had trouble expressing his feelings to an insensitive and clueless Fee.
- James "Jay" McGarry (ジェイムズ・マクギャリー Jeimuzu MakuGyarī)
- Nicknamed Jay (ジェイ Jei), he was a well-known TV drama director. He was also outspoken and harsh, even when he met his match, Tracy as she was cast for his show. He lived with his boyfriend and his son, Ralph, which explained Ralph's homosexuality. Despite being gay, he had wanted a son, so he actually got into a sexual relationship with a woman for that sole purpose, then later broke up with her.
- Leo (リオ Rio)
- James's boyfriend. While James was inconsiderate, he was tactful and caring when talking to Ralph.
References
External links
- Family! (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia