Obake no Q-tarō

Obake no Q-tarō

Obake no Q-tarō on the cover of Bessatsu Shōnen Sunday
オバケのQ太郎
(Q-tarō, the ghost)
Genre Comedy
Manga
Written by Fujiko Fujio
Published by Shogakukan
Demographic Shōnen
Magazine Weekly Shōnen Sunday, Shōnen Book, CoroCoro Comic, Bessatsu Shōnen Sunday
Original run 19641973
Volumes 6
Manga
Shin Q-tarō
Written by Fujiko Fujio
Published by Shogakukan
Demographic Shōnen
Magazine CoroCoro Comic
Volumes 4
Anime television series
Directed by Masaaki Osumi
Studio TMS Entertainment
Original network TBS
Original run 29 August 1965 28 June 1967
Episodes 96
Anime television series
Shin Obake no Q-tarō
Directed by Tadao Nagahama
Studio TMS Entertainment
Original network Nippon Television
Original run 1 September 1971 27 December 1972
Episodes 70 (140 segments)
Anime television series
Shin Obake no Q-tarō
Studio Shin-Ei Animation
Original network TV Asahi
Original run 1 April 1985 29 March 1987
Episodes 510
Game
Chubby Cherub
Developer TOSE
Publisher Bandai
Genre Action
Platform Nintendo Entertainment System
Released 1985
Anime film
Obake no Q-tarō: Tobidase! Bake Bake Daisakusen
Directed by Hiroshi Sasagawa
Music by Shunsuke Kikuchi
Studio Shin-Ei Animation
Released March 15, 1986
Runtime 120 minutes
Anime film
Obake no Q-tarō: Susume! 1/100 Daisakusen
Directed by Hiroshi Sasagawa
Music by Shunsuke Kikuchi
Studio Shin-Ei Animation
Released March 14, 1987
Runtime 15 minutes

Obake no Q-tarō (オバケのQ(キュー)太郎, Obake no Kyū-tarō), by Fujiko Fujio, is a Japanese manga about an obake, Qtarō (Sometimes also spelled as Q-tarō) who lives with the Ōhara family. Qtarō, also known as Q-chan or Oba-Q, is a mischief-maker who likes to fly around scaring people and stealing food, though he is deathly afraid of dogs.

The story is usually focused on the antics of Qtarō and his friends. The manga was drawn in 1964–1966 by Fujiko Fujio (Fujiko F. Fujio and Fujiko Fujio A) and in 1971–1974 by Fujiko F. Fujio.

There are three anime series of Qtaro. The first anime adaptation of Obake no Qtarō was shown on the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) in black & white, and ran from 1965–1968. Machiko Soga was the voice of Qtarō. The series was especially popular preceding Doraemon. It also ran outside Japan, in Hong Kong under the name Q-tailong. The second series ran from 1971–1972 on Nihon TV, this time in color. The third series ran from 1985–1987 on TV Asahi. This adaptation is the only one of the three Obake no Q-taro anime to have a home video release.

Characters

Voiced by: Machiko Soga (1965), Junko Hori (1971), Fusako Amachi (1985)
The protagonist of the manga, Q-tarō has a fear of dogs and cannot transform although he is an obake.
Voiced by: Kazue Tagami (1965), Yoshiko Ōta (1971), Katsue Miwa (1985)
A human friend of Q-tarō, Shōta Ōhara is a grade school boy. Q-tarō calls him "Shō-chan" (正ちゃん) and Shota calls Q-tarō "Q-chan" (Qちゃん).
Voiced by: Masako Nozawa (1965), Sumiko Shirakawa (1971), Yū Mizushima (1985)
Shota's older brother.
Voiced by: Eiko Masuyama (1965), Hiroko Maruyama (1971), Eiko Masuyama (1985)
U-ko, a judoka, is Q-tarō's girlfriend obake.
Voiced by: Misae Kita (1965), Yoshiko Yamamoto (1971), Fuyumi Shiraishi (1985)
Doronpa is an American obake. Q-tarō tend to have a rivalry towards him due to the fact that U-ko idolizes Doronpa's intelligence and he likes to annoy Q-tarō.
Voiced by: Yōko Mizugaki (1965), Kazuko Sawada (1971), Yūko Mita (1985)
P-ko is Q-tarō's younger sister.
Voiced by: Makoto Kōsaka→Reiko Katsura (1971), Keiko Yokozawa (1985)
O-jirō is Q-tarō's younger brother. Although he can understand others' speech, he can only say "bakeratta." Only Q-tarō understands what O-jirō says.
Father of Q-tarō, P-ko, and O-jirō.
Mother of Q-tarō, P-ko, and O-jirō.
Voiced by: Kaneta Kimotsuki (1965/1971), Hiroshi Takemura (1985)
Nickname: Godzilla. A bully in Shota's class and neighborhood.
Voiced by: Unknown (1965), Sumiko Shirakawa (1971), Kaneta Kimotsuki (1985), Naoki Tatsuta (1985, stand-in)
Shota's smart classmate.
Voiced by: Unknown (1965), Kazuko Sawada (1971), Naoki Tatsuta (1985)
Shota's rich classmate who kisses up to Godzilla.
Voiced by: Mariko Tsukai (1965), Michiko Nomura (1971), Sanae Miyuki (1985)
Shota's female classmate, always referred to as "Yotchan" (よっちゃん).

Reception and impact

Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani cites the series as inspiration for the character design in the Pac-Man video game series.[1]

References

  1. Kohler, Chris. "Q&A: Pac-Man Creator Reflects on 30 Years of Dot-Eating | Game|Life". Wired.com. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.