Fuku-chan () is a manga series by

Ryūichi Yokoyama Ryūichi Yokoyama (; May 17, 1909 – November 8, 2001) was a Japanese mangaka and animation director. He has created very successful ''yonkoma'' comic strips since the 1930s. Life Yokoyama was born in Kōchi, Kōchi, Kōchi; his parents were sil ...

. The ''

yonkoma is a comic strip format that generally consists of gag comic strips within four panels of equal size ordered from top to bottom. They also sometimes run right-to-left horizontally or use a hybrid 2×2 style, depending on the layout requiremen ...

'' series appeared in Japanese newspapers from 1936 to 1971, making it one of the longest-running Japanese comic strip series. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, three films about Fuku-chan were made for propaganda purposes and in 1982 they were adapted into an anime television series. The character became the mascot of

Waseda University Waseda University (Japanese: ), abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the Tōkyō Professional School by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the fifth Prime Minister of Japan, prime ministe ...

Synopsis

The series' protagonist is the five-year-old street boy Fukuo “Fuku-chan” Fuchida, who mostly plays pranks on the people around him. Recurring characters include Fuku-chan's friend Kumi, playmate Namiko and her younger brother Kiyo, the cheeky twins Doshako and Garako, and Ganchan, who always annoys the other children at preschool.

Publication

The character first appeared in Yokoyama's older series ''Edokko Ken-chan'', where he appeared several times as a mischievous street boy and soon became more popular than the main character. Therefore, the Fuku-chan series started as a spin-off in the

Asahi Shimbun is a Japanese daily newspaper founded in 1879. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. The ''Asahi Shimbun'' is one of the five largest newspapers in Japan along with the ''Yom ...

in October 1936. It was published throughout the war and was only discontinued in 1971. During the war, some changes were made to conform to propaganda, for example, a "Forward!" was added to the title. In the post-war period, the illustrator was reprimanded by censors for his depiction of Americans with red noses.

Film adaptations

A first adaptation of the comic strip as a film was published in 1941 as ''Fuku-chan no Kishū''. The film consisted of one reel of film and was probably a success, as the Navy Department subsequently commissioned the production of two more films that would focus on life at sea. Both propaganda films were released in 1944. The one-reel short film ''Uwanosora Hakase'' was made from a script by Yokoyama and directed by Maeda Hajime with a team of 18 over a period of eight months. It was a Navy Department co-production with Asahi Eigasha. The short film has not survived. The second of the two films from 1944 is ''Fuku-chan no Sensuikan'' (English: "Fuku-chan's Submarine"), a five-reel work that was directed by Mochinaga Tadahito. No other people involved are known and there are conflicting reports about Yokoyama's involvement. For the production, the team was allowed to visit a naval base and a submarine and observe their crew. Some of the observations were incorporated into the film, for example in a cooking scene. A multiplan camera was constructed for production, but could only be used to a limited extent due to the general lack of material and employees. An anime television series followed in 1982, directed by Mineo Fuji at

Shin-Ei Animation is a Japanese animation studio owned by TV Asahi and founded in Tokyo in 1965 as A Production by Daikichirō Kusube, who was previously an animator for Toei Animation. History Shin-Ei Animation's history begins in December 1965 as by Daiki ...

. The screenplays were written by Masaki Tsuji, Toshiyuki Kashiwakura, Noboru Shiroyama and Hiroko Naka. The character design was created by Ryuichi Yokoyama. The 71 25-minute episodes were broadcast by

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as , and better known as , is a Japanese television station serving the Kanto region as the flagship station of the All-Nippon News Network. It is owned-and-operated by the a subsidiary of , itself controlled by ...

from November 2, 1982, to March 27, 1984.

Dubbing

{, class="wikitable" !Character !Japanese dub , - , Fuku-chan ,

Chika Sakamoto is a Japanese voice actress who is affiliated with Arts Vision. Filmography Television animation ;1980s *'' Captain Tsubasa'' (1983) – Sanae Nakazawa *'' Cat's Eye'' (1983) – Ai Kisugi *''Nine'' (1983) – Yukimi Yasuda *''Super Dimension ...

, - , Kiyo-chan ,

Reiko Katsura Voice acting in Japan is an industry where actors provide voice-overs as characters or narrators in media including anime, video games, audio dramas, commercials, and dubbing for non-Japanese films and television programs. In Japan, and ac ...

, - , Kumi-chan , Yōko Kuri

Music

The TV series' music was composed by Hiroshi Tsutsui. The opening song is ''Boku, Fuku-chan dai!'' by

External links

Entry
at

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and ot ...

References

1936 manga Pre-1945 manga 1940s lost films 1982 anime television series debuts 1984 Japanese television series endings Animated sitcoms Animated television series about children Animated television series about families Anime series based on manga Comedy anime and manga Films based on manga Shin-Ei Animation TV Asahi original programming Works originally published in Asahi Shimbun Yonkoma