() 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 ...

series created by

Osamu Tezuka Osamu Tezuka (, born , ''Tezuka Osamu'', – 9 February 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist and animator. Considered to be among the greatest and most influential cartoonists of all time, his prolific output, pioneering techniques an ...

dealing with the adventures of the eponymous phantom thief. Collected in seven

volumes Volume is a measure of regions in three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch). The ...

, it has been published in France by Asuka.

Plot

Rainbow Parakeet is a genius as an

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

, and a thief at the same time. As he is not a full-time , he is usually hired as a replacement. During the performance, he steals from the wealthiest members of the audience or even actors, depriving them of the contents of their purses or their jewelry. True to his alias name "Rainbow Parakeet", he can assume the role of almost any part and change into any costume, and his repertoire is immense. His methods are a mystery, even to the detectives charged with apprehending him: Police Inspector Senri and his daughter, Police Detective Mariko Senri.

Characters

;Rainbow Parakeet A thief who is also a professional mimic (although he called himself a layman in acting), he usually steals from the rich among the audience, causing Detective Senri and her daughter Mariko to pursue him. ;Police Inspector Senri ;Police Detective Mariko Senri Inspector Senri's daughter. While she is passionate about capturing Rainbow Parakeet, she is also in love with him. ;Tamasaburō A dog who is as good at disguising himself as Parakeet. Tamasaburo soon joins Parakeet in his work. ;Chochin Odawara ;Mozuku Tengusa ;Clown Tommy

General remarks

The work was serialized in the '' Weekly Shonen Champion'' and ran from 1981 to 1982. Each typical episode adapted or paid homage to a play from the West, or from the Japanese theater, both traditional and modern. Examples include

Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright, poet and actor. Ibsen is considered the world's pre-eminent dramatist of the 19th century and is often referred to as "the father of modern drama." He pioneered ...

(Episode 3: '' Doll's House'') and

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

(Episode 35: The dog Tamasaburō faces the threat of being fed to a lion named

Shylock Shylock () is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's play '' The Merchant of Venice'' ( 1600). A Venetian Jewish moneylender, Shylock is the play's principal villain. His defeat and forced conversion to Christianity form the climax ...

). The work has been adapted into several stage plays. The 2000 adaptation starred Goro Inagaki as Rainbow Parakeet and Rie Miyazawa as Mariko. The 2018 adaptation featured an all-female cast, with Junna Ito as Rainbow Parakeet and Konoka Matsuda as Mariko.

Appearances in other media

''Astro Boy'' (1980 TV series)

Parakeet appeared as detective " Sherlock Homespun" in an episode of the 1980s series, where he was an English cyborg private detective who helps

Astro Boy ''Astro Boy'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka. It was serialized in Kobunsha's ''Shōnen'' from 1952 to 1968. The 112 chapters were collected into 23 volumes by Akita Shoten. Da ...

recover an artificial sun created to help exploration in

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...

''Astro Boy'' (2003 TV series)

Parakeet is featured in several episodes of the 2003 TV incarnation of ''

'' as the terrorist Kato.

Availability in English

While the entire series has yet to be translated, three excerpts were included in Tezuka's Shakespeare Manga Theater from Ablaze Publishing.

References

External links

''Rainbow Parakeet''
in the Tezuka World database * {{Weekly Shōnen Champion Akita Shoten manga Anime and manga about crime Osamu Tezuka manga Shōnen manga Theatre in anime and manga