Obake no Q-Tarō and Shin Obake no Q-Tarō (partially found TMS anime adaptations based on Fujiko Fujio gag manga; 1965-1972)

Q-Taro

Status: Partially Found

Obake no Q-Tarō is a manga series created by manga duo Fujiko Fujio, best known for their work on Doraemon. It is about the titular mischief-making ghost named Q-Taro who has the ability to fly and turn invisible and loves scaring people, but cannot transform and is also Cynophobic, meaning he is afraid of dogs. Initially written by both authors between 1964 to 1966, Fujio F handled the series without Fujio A's involvement from 1971 to 1974 with this version being called Shin Obake no Q-Tarō. This series is notable for being Fujiko Fujio's first major hit with the success of the 1965 anime, which resulted in their later works to grow in popularity in the following years. Despite this, The anime adaptations of Obake no Q-Tarō made by TMS Entertainment are obscure, with only some footage of both series being available online.

Anime adaptations

There were three anime adaptations made for it between the 60's and 80's, all of which share a similar premise. The first of which, produced by Tokyo Movie (Now TMS Entertainment) is simply titled Obake no Q-Tarō, and aired between 1965 and 1967, lasting 96 episodes on TBS.^[1] This adaptation became popular at the time of its airing, and spawned various merchandise, which ranged from toys to clothes. As a result, this was both Fujiko Fujio and Tokyo Movie's first hit, as well as the earliest known Comedy anime in Japan. the 1965 series was the only adaptation to air in Black and White, as color television was almost nonexistent in Japan at the time.

Following the success of the first anime, another also made by Tokyo Movie was produced between 1971 and 1972, which aired on Nippon TV as Shin Obake no Q-Tarō. Having aired 70 episodes, this anime was the shortest-lived out of all three adaptations of the manga.^[2]

20 years after the first anime, while the 1979 Doraemon series was still airing, a third and final anime, this time produced by Shin-Ei Animation, aired between 1985 and 1987 on TV Asahi with 510 episodes, was the longest of all adaptations of the series in terms of episode count, though each episode only lasts for 10 minutes. This anime is known simply as Obake no Q-Tarō.^[3]

Availability

The rights to the original manga are in limbo, as unlike most of the duo's works, both Fujio F and Fujio A owned both rights to it,^[4] and remained that way even after they both split up in 1987.^[5] This is muddied even further when they both died in 1996 and 2022 respectively. As a result, despite Q-Taro being historical as Fujiko Fujio's first major success (though Doraemon had completely took the title as the duo's most popular work), none of its various anime adaptations were given a DVD release or are available in any streaming service.

While the Shin-Ei adaptation is available in its entirety online, both TMS adaptations are difficult to find, with only the opening and ending animations for both, as well as scattered pieces of footage being available online While a single full episode from the 1965 series, named "The Collection", alongside clips for its pilot, can be found on Youtube, no episodes of Shin Q-Taro have been known to exist in full. The first episode of the 1965 series was, at one point, uploaded to Youtube, but it was taken down on an unknown date. However, years later, the same episode has resurfaced on the Internet Archive.

TMS Entertainment showed no interest in rereleasing their adaptations on home media or have them rebroadcasted on television, even if they likely still have them in their archives, possibly due to a mix of both copyright concerns preventing them from happening, and even if some episodes from these anime are at the hands of some Japanese users, it is unlikely that they'll upload those episodes online due to Japan's strict copyright laws.