 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Obake no Q-Tarō" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(July 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Obake no Q-Tarō | |
 Obake no Q-Tarō on the cover ofBessatsu Shōnen Sunday | |
| オバケのQ太郎 (Obake no Kyū-Tarō) | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Comedy |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Fujiko Fujio |
| Published by | Shogakukan |
| Imprint | Tentōmushi Comics |
| Magazine | Weekly Shōnen Sunday Bessatsu Shōnen Sunday |
| Demographic | Shōnen |
| Original run | 1964 –1966 |
| Volumes | 12 |
| Anime television series | |
| Directed by | Masaaki Osumi |
| Music by | Hiroshi Tsutsui |
| Studio | A-Production Tokyo Movie |
| Original network | TBS |
| Original run | August 29, 1965 – June 28, 1967 |
| Episodes | 96 |
| Manga | |
| Shin Obake no Q-Tarō | |
| Written by | Fujiko Fujio |
| Published by | Shogakukan |
| Imprint | Tentōmushi Comics |
| Magazine | Shogakukan Learning Magazine And other Shogakukan children's magazines |
| Demographic | Children |
| Original run | 1971 –1973 |
| Volumes | 4 |
| Anime television series | |
| Shin Obake no Q-Tarō | |
| Directed by | Tadao Nagahama |
| Produced by | Harutoshi Kawaguchi Kensuke Fujii(NTV) |
| Music by | Naozumi Yamamoto |
| Studio | A-Production Tokyo Movie |
| Original network | NTV |
| Original run | September 1, 1971 – December 27, 1972 |
| Episodes | 70 (140 segments) |
| Anime television series | |
| Directed by | Masuji Harada Hiroshi Sasagawa(Chief director) |
| Produced by | Junichi Kimura Yoshiaki Koizumi(TV Asahi) Yoshio Katō Seitarō Kodama(Shin-Ei Animation) (Asatsu-DK) |
| Music by | Shunsuke Kikuchi |
| Studio | Shin-Ei Animation |
| Original network | ANN (TV Asahi) |
| Original run | April 1, 1985 – March 29, 1987 |
| Episodes | 510 |
| Anime film | |
| Obake no Q-Tarō: Tobidase! Bake Bake Daisakusen | |
| Directed by | Hiroshi Sasagawa |
| Music by | Shunsuke Kikuchi |
| Studio | Shin-Ei Animation |
| Released | March 15, 1986 |
| Runtime | 15 minutes |
| Anime film | |
| Obake no Q-Tarō: Toidase! 1/100 Daisakusen | |
| Directed by | Hiroshi Sasagawa |
| Music by | Shunsuke Kikuchi |
| Studio | Shin-Ei Animation |
| Released | March 14, 1987 |
| Runtime | 15 minutes |
| Video games | |
| |
Obake no Q-Tarō (Japanese:オバケのQ太郎,Hepburn:Obake no Kyū-Tarō) is a Japanesemanga series byFujiko Fujio about the titularobake, Q-Taro, who lives with the Ōhara family. Q-Tarō, also known as "Q-chan" or "Oba-Q", is a mischief-maker who likes to fly around scaring people and stealing food, though he isdeathly afraid of dogs.
The story is usually focused on the antics of Q-Tarō and his friends. The manga was drawn in 1964–1966, 1971–1974, 1976 by the duoFujiko Fujio (Hiroshi Fujimoto and Motoo Abiko). An English manga volume was published in Japan asQ the Spook.[1]
There are threeanime series adaptations ofObake no Q-Tarō. The first was shown on theTokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) in black and white, and ran from 1965 to 1967. The second series, produced in color, ran from 1971 to 1972 onNippon TV. The third series ran from 1985 to 1987 onTV Asahi.
The series was broadcast in the United States in the 1970s asLittle Ghost Q-Taro, making it one of only three works by Fujiko Fujio to reach North America.[2] In France, one of the episodes of the 1965 series was aired in November 1967 as part ofORTF Chaine 2's Japanese week, complete with French subtitles.[3]
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(March 2015) |
The popularity of the 1965 anime adaptation caused a cultural phenomenon called "Oba-Q boom" (オバQブームOba-Kyū būmu), which made the series have an 30% audience rating, high popularity with children and spawn a variety of toys, songs and clothes, as well a host of imitators. The reason of Q-Tarō's popularity was that the series was grounded in everyday Japanese life, with Q-Tarō questioning the structure of Japanese society and the comedic situations that occurred because of Q-Tarō misinterpreting it.[4][5][6]
Pac-Man creatorToru Iwatani cited the series as inspiration for the designs of theGhosts in thePac-Man video game series.[7] In the manga seriesTo Love Ru, the ghost characterShizu Murasame has a fear of dogs as an homage toLittle Ghost Q-Taro.[8]
