If you're in the lost media space and/or the Doraemon fandom and think of "lost media" and "Fujiko Fujio" together you might think of Doraemon 1973. It's been sought after for a while, especially since there's only one episode that survives in audio form, alongside the OP and ED and two other clips.
However, there's another Fujiko Fujio that I and a few others would really like to see; It's important in the fact that
It was the first comedy anime in Japan
It shaped how companies in Japan thought about marketing characters/mascots
It was arguably THE MOST popular anime in Japan during it's run (with a social phenomenon called the "Oba-Q Boom"
This series is "Obake no Q-Taro" ("Q the Spook", lit. "Q-Taro the Ghost") which premiered in 1965 and was co-produced by Tokyo Movie & A Production (today known as TMS Entertainment & Shin-Ei Animation).
Premise & Character Info
The main premise is about Q-Taro/'Oba-Q' (right) and his adventures, mainly with his best friend Shota Ohara/'Sho-chan' (left), and other people in their neighborhood.
Some of Q-Taro's traits are that:
he can fly
he loves eating
and most importantly,
he's afraid of dogs
Some characters in Oba-Q include:
Doronpa, the American ghost who serves as an antagonist to Q-Taro in the later episodes
P-Ko, Q-Taro's little sister
Gojira, a character who serves as the usual bully archetype character later seen in more Fujiko works (a la Gian from Doraemon)
Speaking of Doraemon, there's also characters in Oba-Q that would later appear in Doraemon (namely Kaminari [couldn't find a 1965 screenshot or cel of him, sorry] & Mr. Koike.)
Popularity/Impact
Obake no Q-Taro proved to be extremely popular with audiences in Japan, with a 30% viewership rating for the first episode alone. It's primetime slot in TBS (JNN)'s "Fujiya Time" block contributed greatly to this popularity. Furthermore, as it aired directly after the popular kaiju series Ultra Q, Other competing stations had named the block the "Terrifying QQ Hour".
Furthermore, the Obake no Q-Taro anime was sponsored by the Fujiya confectionery company (as the program aired on the company's sponsored TV timeslot), which in collaboration of Shogakukan (the copyright holder for the Obake no Q-Taro manga), led to a merchandising boom in chocolates, snacks, vinyl records, and toys. Such merchandising (on top of the previously mentioned "Terrifying QQ Hour") led to a social phenomenon known as the "Oba-Q Boom".
Eventually, the popularity got to the point where Fujiya requested the Fujiko Fujio duo (Fujiko F. Fujio and Fujiko Fujio A) to create a new series and put Oba-Q to rest, so they had come up with a new superhero series called Perman, which shortly replaced Oba-Q's anime and manga serialization.
Despite this, the popularity for Oba-Q was so high that instead of cancelling the show right after Perman took the Fujiya Time slot, Obake no Q-Taro moved to a different time slot, and ran for 12 more segments (the A segment was a newly produced segment, while the B segment was a rerun of an earlier segment.)
Despite these new episodes coming and going, the popularity still hadn't waned, which led to TBS (JNN) making the decision to rerun the entire series in the same slot that it was moved to, all the way until 1969 (2 years after the original run ended.)
Even today, the 2nd ending song, titled "Oba-Q Ondo" (Which is the first ondo specifically designed just for an anime) is still danced to at festivals in Japan to this very day.
BUT IF IT WAS THAT INFLUENTIAL, WHY IS IT LOST?
Good question! I don't know either.
Here's a few theories as to why it could be the case:
1. Racism controversy (TW: Racist stereotypes, there's no images but be warned if you do your own research)
In the original manga, there was a chapter called "International Ghost Alliance" which had depicted a ghost with a tribal African stereotype; a group called the "Society for the Elimination of Racism against Black People" protested this chapter, which had caused the manga to go out-of-print for a while.
However, this theory may not be correct for one simple reason:
Jungle Kurobe is an anime also co-produced by Tokyo Movie and A-Production in 1973 on Nippon TV (Same station as Doraemon 1973!) where the main character is also depicted as a tribal African stereotype.
It had been rebroadcast for a few times since it's initial broadcast, and despite it's speculation of being sealed, it received two DVD releases in 2015 and 2024, as well as a limited-time upload on YouTube in 2024 (in celebration of Fujiko F. Fujio's 90th Anniversary.)
If Jungle Kurobe - where the main character who appears in every episode is a racist stereotype - be easily seen, why can't Oba-Q be seen?
(In a perfect universe this wouldn't have to be a thing at all but a lot of mangakas were just unfortunately ignorant especially since people of African descent weren't common in Japan)
2. Complications between Fujiko Pro and Fujiko Studio
In 1987, when Fujiko F. Fujio made his intention clear to split off from the Fujiko Fujio duo and go independent due to health & financial constraints, the two took the rights to their works:
Fujiko F. Fujio took Doraemon, Perman, Kiteretsu Daihyakka, Umeboshi Denka, etc. and established Fujiko Pro.
Fujiko Fujio A took Ninja Hattori, The Laughing Salesman, Kaibutsu-kun, etc. and maintained Fujiko Studio.
However, the two decided to continue to co-own Obake no Q-Taro; It was one of their earliest works to receive wide popularity and both of them had equally contributed to drawing characters in the manga.
According to Kenji Ando's "The Mystery of Sealed Works 2", it's speculated that after F passed away, Fujiko F. Fujio's family (who inherited Fujiko Pro) and the family of Fujiko Fujio A (who was still alive, he hadn't passed away until 2022) had disputes regarding the rights to Obake no Q-Taro.
The main whole in this theory is that Obake no Q-Taro's manga has still seen publication and still appears in Fujiko F. Fujio related projects. (look at the small copyright text in the album covers; both of them say that Obake no Q-Taro is owned by Fujiko Pro & Fujiko Studio!)
If the manga can be released, why can't the 1965 anime?
3. It's *actually* genuinely lost
Maybe there's episodes that's actually have missing film!
We only have 2 segments in full; Episode 1A and 12B.
There'a also exists a bunch of clips that appear in variety shows.
Even ones that have appeared as recent as 3 years ago. (above)
My main counterpoint to this is Tokyo Movie's first anime, before their partnership with A Production: Big X (1964).
Episodes 1, 11-12, 14, and 40-59 are the only ones that are known to survive, and have been released on DVD.
If an anime by the same studio where almost half of their episodes are gone can still get a release, why can't Obake no Q-Taro get one?
4. TMS just doesn't want to
damn
Conclusion
I would love to see more of this show one day. I've practically fallen in love with the manga and I think it might be one of my favorites ever. Even though the whole "public domain" optimism that the Doraemon 1973 lost media searching community has is plausible, I don't know if it's ever gonna actually see the light of day. At the very least I can watch the same 2 episodes and laugh at them over and over again.
(Oh yeah and also "Shin Obake no Q-Taro" (New Little Ghost Q-Taro, lit. "New Q-Taro the Ghost") exists and looks 48324892349898 times better than the 1965 one but there's a lot less info on it and it's also lost for probably the same reasons (MINUS 2 BECAUSE SHIN IS ACTUALLY JUST OWNED BY FUJIKO PRO) and it has Q-Taro's little brother in it called O-Jiro and he's funny looking okay that's about it bye)
Since Tumblr is refusing to let me upload the animation here are some screenshots. Think of it as a sequel to that one 3D render I did of the hard drives growing in the lawn
