is a

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

work by Keizō Shimada serialized in

Kodansha is a Japanese privately held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha publishes manga magazines which include ''Nakayoshi'', ''Morning (magazine), Morning'', ''Afternoon (magazine), Afternoon'', ''Evening (magazine), Eveni ...

's boys' magazine

Shōnen Club ''Shōnen Club'' (''Shōnen Kurabu'' / 少年倶楽部, later 少年クラブ in 1946) was a monthly boys' magazine begun by Kodansha in November 1914. The magazine initially featured articles, poetry and serialized novels, but it began to focus ...

from 1933 to 1939. Strictly speaking, it is in the form of a picture story (''

emonogatari is the Japanese term for a narrative story that contains a very high proportion of illustrations. Alternatively, it could be said to be a picture book with a larger amount of text or a manga where the pictures and text have been separated. The ...

)'' with narrative captions attached to the illustrations.

Overview

Dankichi, an adventurous Japanese boy, and his mouse companion Karikō, wash ashore in a

South Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

island after falling asleep in a fishing expedition in the ocean. They find the island is inhabited by natives; Dankichi becomes their king after defeating their leader, bringing "civilized" infrastructures (schools, hospitals, etc.) and customs to the island and defending it from Western invaders. The series quickly become a popular manga, dividing its popularity with

Suihō Tagawa , better known by the pen name Suihō Tagawa (田河水泡, ''Tagawa Suihō''), was a Japanese manga artist. Biography Born in Sumida, Tokyo, Nakatarō Takamizawa grew up an orphan: his mother died upon his birth, his father and his uncle (w ...

Norakuro is a Japanese manga series created by Suihō Tagawa, originally published by Kodansha in '' Shōnen Kurabu'', and one of the first series' to be reprinted in format. The titular protagonist, Norakuro, or Norakuro-'' kun'', is an anthropom ...

, published in the same magazine. The comic was made in the context of the

Japanese Empire The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From 1910 to ...

expansionist campaign to the

islands (

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of approximately 2,000 small islands in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: Maritime Southeast Asia to the west, Poly ...

Palau Palau, officially the Republic of Palau, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the western Pacific Ocean. The Republic of Palau consists of approximately 340 islands and is the western part of the Caroline Islands ...

Northern Mariana Islands The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), is an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territory and Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), commonwealth of the United States consistin ...

and

Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands, is an island country west of the International Date Line and north of the equator in the Micronesia region of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The territory consists of 29 c ...

). In the post-World War II period, the manga was criticized for glorifying aggressionism and promoting racial prejudice; the island people were depicted as dark-skinned, thick-lipped naive barbarians in contrast to the "civilized" Japanese; they weren't given names, but numbers (number 1, 2, 3) by Dankichi. Besides, the island fauna (lions, elephants, giraffes,etc.) was stereotypically African.

Serialization

* Magazine serialization: "Shonen Club," June 1933-July 1939 * After the war, Kodansha published a collection of all Dankichi's works in 1967. It was also published in four volumes in 1976 as part of Kodansha's "Shonen Club Bunko". * Book version: A cloth-bound, two-color printed book similar to "Norakuro" was published by Kodansha, the publisher of "Shonen Club". The content was based on the serialized magazine version, with newly drawn panels added and rearranged. The contents were based on the serialized version in the magazine, and were reorganized with the addition of new panels and other illustrations. * E-books: e-books are available in four volumes from ebookJapan on December 11, 2015, The layout is the same as the first edition, and the horizontal writing is also the same as in those days, right-to-left, but the

kana are syllabary, syllabaries used to write Japanese phonology, Japanese phonological units, Mora (linguistics), morae. In current usage, ''kana'' most commonly refers to ''hiragana'' and ''katakana''. It can also refer to their ancestor , wh ...

spelling has been replaced with modern kana spelling.

Adaptations for screen

* Bōken Dankichi was adapted to screen in the following animated

8mm 8 mm may refer to: Film technology *8 mm film, a motion picture film format ** Super 8 film ** Single-8 film * 8 mm video format, three related videocassette formats Firearms * 8 mm caliber, firearmm cartridges ** 7.92×57mm Mauser, designated 8 ...

short films　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 # Dankichi on a Tropical Island ( 冒険ダン吉　漂流の巻 ''Bouken Dankichi: Hyouryuu no Maki'') (1934) # Bōken Dankichi Heavy Artillery Regiment Volume (冒険ダン吉　重砲連隊の巻 ''Bōken dankichi jūhō rentai no maki'') # Bōken Dankichi Conquest of Foreigners (冒険ダン吉　外人征伐 ''Boken Dankichi Gaijin seibatsu'') # Bōken Dankichi Welcome Baseball Tournament (冒険ダン吉　歓迎野球大会 ''Bōkendankichi kangei yakyū taikai'') # Bōken Dankichi Great Tokyo Tour (冒険ダン吉　大東京巡り ''Bōkendankichi daitōkyō-meguri'') # Dankichi and Popeye Treasure Island Expedition『冒険ダン吉とポパイ　宝島探険 ''Bōkendankichi to popai takarajima tanken''』 # Olympic Games on Dankichi Island ( 冒険ダン吉島のオリムピック大會 ''Dankichi-jima no Olympic Taikai)'' * It was made into a puppet play by

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

(Japan Broadcasting Corporation) from October 28, 1959, to December 23 of the same year, and was broadcast on television under the title "''Ningyogeki Bokenkichi''". * It was also adapted into a puppet show on

Nippon Television JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as (NTV) or Nippon TV, is a Japanese television station serving the Kantō region as the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned and operated by the , a sub ...

from February 1, 1960, to July 30 of the same year and broadcast under the title "Boken Dankichi". It ran for a total of 156 episodes. It was aired Monday-Saturday 18:00-18:15 (JST) as the second program after the drama "Todoroki Sensei," which ran for four and a half years. Puppet production was handled by "Puppet Theatre Company Hitomi-za" of "Hyokkori Hyotanjima" fame. The theme song was written by Koji Shimizu and Yoshiko Kawamukai, sung by the Kamitakada Boys Choir, and released as a single by King Records. The song was provided by Shogakukan and the Ehime Fruit and Vegetable Sales Agricultural Cooperative Association (the parent company of Ehime Beverage), which took turns providing the song for one day. As a side note, NTV broadcast a dramatization of "Tantei Dan-chan" (Detective Dan-chan), also written by Shimada, from December 27, 1958, to June 20, 1959, before this work began.

References

{{reflist

External links

Olympic Games on Dankichi Island
South Seas Mandate Japanese television shows featuring puppetry 1933 comics debuts Comics set on islands Kodansha manga Pre-1945 manga

Overview

Serialization

Adaptations for screen

See also

References

External links