Obake no Q-tarō

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 1964â€"1966 by Fujiko Fujio (Fujiko F. Fujio and Fujiko Fujio A) and in 1971â€"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 1965â€"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 1971â€"1972 on Nihon TV, this time in color. The third series ran from 1985â€"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

• Q-tarō (Q太郎)

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.

• Shōta ÅŒhara (大原 正太, ÅŒhara Shōta)

Voiced by: Kazue Tagami (1965), Yoshiko ÅŒta (1971), Katsue Miwa (1985)

A human friend of Q-tarō, Shōta ÅŒhara is a grade school boy. Q-tarō calls him "Shō-chan" (正ちゃã‚") and Shota calls Q-tarō "Q-chan" (Qちゃã‚").

• Shin'ichi ÅŒhara (大原 伸一, ÅŒhara Shin'ichi)

Voiced by: Masako Nozawa (1965), Sumiko Shirakawa (1971), YÅ« Mizushima (1985)

Shota's older brother.

• U-ko (U子)

Voiced by: Unknown (1965), Hiroko Maruyama (1971), Eiko Masuyama (1985)

U-ko, a judoka, is Q-tarō's girlfriend obake.

• Doronpa (ドロンãƒ')

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.

• P-ko (P子)

Voiced by: Yōko Mizugaki (1965), Kazuko Sawada (1971), Yūko Mita (1985)

P-ko is Q-tarō's younger sister.

• O-jirō (O次郎)

Voiced by: Makoto Kōsakaâ†'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.

• X-zō (Xè"µ)

Father of Q-tarō, P-ko, and O-jirō.

• O-zetto (おZ)

Mother of Q-tarō, P-ko, and O-jirō.

• Tsuyoshi Saigō (西郷 å¼·, Saigō Tsuyoshi)

Voiced by: Kaneta Kimotsuki (1965/1971), Hiroshi Takemura (1985)

Nickname: Godzilla. A bully in Shota's class and neighborhood.

• Hakase (ハカセ, "Professor")

Voiced by: Unknown (1965), Sumiko Shirakawa (1971), Kaneta Kimotsuki (1985), Naoki Tatsuta (1985, stand-in)

Shota's smart classmate.

• Kizao Kiza (木佐 キザオ, Kiza Kizao)

Voiced by: Unknown (1965), Kazuko Sawada (1971), Naoki Tatsuta (1985)

Shota's rich classmate who kisses up to Godzilla.

• Yoshiko Koizumi (小泉 美子, Koizumi Yoshiko)

Voiced by: Mariko Tsukai (1965), Michiko Nomura (1971), Sanae Miyuki (1985)

Shota's female classmate, always referred to as "Yotchan" (よっちゃã‚").

Appearances in other media

A toy of Obake appears on the desk of a character in volume 16 of 20th Century Boys.

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

During the third arc of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, when the heroes check in to Enya Geil's hotel, Jotaro signs "Qtaro Kujo" as his name, which allows him to later realize that Enya is a servant of Dio when she calls him Jotaro rather than Qtaro.

See also

• Obake no Q-tarō WanWan Panic, a video game released in North America as Chubby Cherub.

References

External links

• 60s Obake no Q-tarō (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• 70s Obake no Q-tarō (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• 80s Obake no Q-tarō (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia