# Kiteretsu Daihyakka

Kiteretsu Daihyakka (キテレツ大百科, "Kiteretsu Large Encyclopedia"; commonly shortened to Kiteretsu) is a Japanese manga series by Fujiko Fujio (Fujimoto alone), which ran in the children's magazine Kodomo no Hikari from April 1974 to July 1977. The manga was later made into a 331-episode anime television series that ran on Fuji TV from 27 March 1988 to 9 June 1996.

## Plot

The series is the story of a scientific inventor boy genius named Eiichi Kite, a descendant of an inventor named Kiteretsu Saisama, who has built a companion robot named Korosuke. His friends are Miyoko, a girl in his neighborhood who has a crush on him, Buta Gorira (Kumada Kaoru), a local bully, and Tongari, a rich boy. They all attend the same school and are in the same grade. Eiichi goes on frequent adventures with his friends and Korosuke in the time machine which he built.

## Characters
### Eiichi Kite (木手英一, Kite Eiichi) (a.k.a., Kiteretsu (キテレツ))

    Her academic performance is relatively good, but she is not the type to be studious or hardworking. She is good at science and math, but not at Japanese. She also has knowledge of geography and history, and is good with her hands because she invents things on a daily basis. She has a serious personality and is well-liked by her friends.
At first, he was at the center of the commotion together with Korosuke, but gradually supporting characters such as Butagorilla became the center of the commotion, and he became a reliable presence who solved various problems using inventions. However, he often causes trouble by failing to make inventions or by having his inventions malfunction. Since he funds his inventions from his pocket money and New Year's money, if his invention breaks, it is left broken until he has saved up the money to repair it. He is skilled in the skills and knowledge of crafts and inventions, and is skilled enough to repair electrical appliances and even cars himself. However, he is also clumsy, forgetting to read the explanations in the encyclopedia and not being able to explain things well to others. He often angers Miyoko and Tongari with his careless remarks. There are also scenes where Korosuke is surprised to see him studying. Perhaps inherited from his father, he is not good at sports, and due to his serious personality he tells Korosuke and the others that he doesn't want to cheat to get good grades, but he has also made inventions just to skip physical education tests. As an infant, he had a cold that got worse and was in danger of dying. Although he is not good at sports, he once practiced hard with the support of his mother and Korosuke in order to successfully do a back flip on the horizontal bar. Since he was in the second grade of elementary school, he has been nearsighted and has been wearing regular glasses, but since he learned about the function of the Shinto Mirror, he has been wearing these glasses. He always wears a red sun visor with a "K" mark on it. In the beginning, he often invents for pranks or fraudulent purposes, but after being persuaded by his father and reforming, he is depicted as being less likely to do so. Also, at the beginning, he has a sloppy and playful side, but as the story progresses, he becomes more calm and trusted by his friends, and in the later stages, he is often consulted about inventions and inventions.　 Even as an elementary school student, he is adept at using computers, and has a computer desk in addition to his study desk in his room. Although he has feelings for Miyoko and the two are sometimes depicted as having mutual feelings, he also has a fickle side, becoming attracted to classmates and upperclassmen when they approach him. He dislikes earthquakes, and vegetables such as carrots and celery. He used to eat vegetables by changing the taste with food-transforming furikake, but after Butagorilla found out, he overcame this fear when he ate them normally and discovered how delicious they were. He also dislikes ghost stories, and once wet himself in third grade because he was so scared. His catchphrase is "That's impossible!" In kindergarten, he was called "Crybaby Ei-chan". In the future, he wants to study science at a university in the United States. In the future, he will become an inventor who will eliminate kitchen knives from Japanese homes. After graduating from high school, he went on to Takao University. Voiced by: Toshiko Fujita.

### Korosuke (コロ助)

    Kiteretsu's lazy robot assistant who usually ends his sentences with nari (ナリ). He usually wears an artificial samurai sword. He is an invention in the encyclopedia. He was made by Kiteretsu himself. Voiced by: Mami Koyama and later by Kazuko Sugiyama.

### Miyoko Nonohana (野々花みよ子, Nonoha Miyoko) (a.k.a., Miyo-chan (みよちゃん)))

    commonly known as Miyoko. She is 144cm tall. She is an idol-like classmate whom Kiteretsu admires. Kiteretsu says she has a sharp intuition and a mature personality. She also doesn't seem to be bad at studying or sports, and is sometimes seen running early in the morning.
She has a strong will and a busybody side, and has been called insolent because she gets angry easily when she senses that Kitaretsu, Butagorilla, and Tongari are behaving in a way that she dislikes, or when she is not invited on an adventure or is put in charge of staying at home during an emergency. She has a strong curiosity about Kitaretsu, and often sticks her nose into their commotions and journeys. Like Korosuke, she seems unable to avoid knowing about the events that occur around Kitaretsu. At first, Butagorilla and Tongari also had feelings for him, but after they each got other girlfriends, these depictions of him no longer exist. He has a high opinion of Kiteretsu's inventions and places great trust in them. Her special skill is cooking. Her least favorite vegetables are peppers and onions. Her casual clothes are a random red jumper skirt out of pink, light pink, and white blouses except in summer, and a sleeveless red two-piece in summer. He keeps a canary named Chichi (Episode 2). In the early series, her name was written as Miyoko in the credits, but from the fourth ending, the spelling of "Miyoko" and "Miyoko" became unclear, and from the middle of the TV series onwards, it was unified to "Miyoko". Also, in the early series, she called Butagorilla "Kumada-kun", but from the middle of the series (around episodes 10 to 20), she started calling him "Butagorilla-kun". Apparently, he often had tonsils when he was in kindergarten. After graduating from high school, he went on to study at Takao University. The name "Miyoko" comes from the Toyama dialect word "Miyoi", which means "beautiful (person)". The same author's manga series Ume-Boshi Denka and Dorami-chan also feature a girl named Miyo as a regular character, but she is not based on the star system and has a completely different appearance. Voiced by: Yuriko Yamamoto, followed by Mayumi Shō and Chieko Honda.

### Kaoru Kumada (熊田薫, Kumada Kaoru) (a.k.a., Butagorira (ブタゴリラ))

    In the 1987 TV special and the beginning of the anime series, he was often an enemy of Kiteretsu and Korosuke as a mean bully who was paired with Tongari, just like in the original work and "New Kiteretsu Encyclopedia". As the series progressed, his character changed just as Kiteretsu and Tongari became more reliable. In his dialogue with Korosuke and Tongari, he became a comedy relief who gets laughs with his airheadedness, mishearing, and misunderstandings (a bold character like a downtown Edokko, with the influence of rakugo), and the stereotypical aspects of the bully seen in other Fujiko works faded away, and at the same time, a heroic personality was added. The change of voice actor in the middle of the series is also thought to have had a big impact on the change in his characteristics. According to the main writer Yukimuro Shunichi, he was a leading character from the middle to the end of the series. He is also a troublemaker in the story.
His real name, "Kumada Kaoru", and the fact that his family runs a greengrocer's shop are unique to the anime version, and were decided to expand the story. In the original work, Butagorilla's house is a normal house, and his family business is unknown. The origin of his name is that "I was tired of my strange name Kumahachi, so I wanted to give my child a good name". He was destined to be named "Kaoru" regardless of whether he was born male or female, but he himself has a complex about his feminine name, so he makes people call him by the derogatory nickname "Butagorilla" to prevent people from calling him by his real name. On the other hand, he gets angry when people call him "Pig", and when someone mistakenly called him "Gorilla Pig", he corrected them by saying "It's Butagorilla!" Due to his bad attitude and violent nature, he is often disliked by guest characters (Ottori, Ochappii, Saru, Karasu, Kagemasa, etc.), in contrast to Kiteretsu and the others. Therefore, it can be said that it is mostly his fault that he is considered a nuisance or causes trouble to those around him. When he uses the wrong words, he is called out by Tongari and others. Perhaps because he is proud of his family business, he likes to understand everything in terms of vegetables, and does not tolerate people who dislike vegetables. Because he loves vegetables too much, he once lost a fight with a senior student who is a butcher's son, and almost started to dislike meat. His dream for the future is to build a vegetable department store. Despite his obese physique, he has excellent athletic ability and is fast, and can do a cartwheel on the horizontal bar and a handstand on one hand. In baseball, even as an elementary school student, he can control curveballs, shooters, and other breaking balls, and in batting, he hits clean hits one after another and even hits home runs with his natural power. His dream is to "eat my fill of melons". When he time-traveled to Kiteretsu's babyhood, Butagorilla was not born yet, so his birthday is later than Kiteretsu's. His eyesight is 2.0 in both eyes, and he has never had a cavity. He has never had a cold (though he does finally catch a cold at the end of episode 277 of the anime, "Guinness World Record!? Class Representative for One Day"). He is not good at studying except for physical education (he claims that he gets all A's on his report cards except for physical education), but he did have the experience of being a class representative for one day. When he goes out, he wears a baseball cap, and always wears long pants and shoes with bare feet, regardless of the season or whether he is indoors or outdoors. On days when he goes to elementary school, he carries a backpack. In summer, he wears a light blue striped T-shirt, and a sweatshirt of the same color otherwise. He wears a yukata as a nightgown. When he looked into the future using a crystal ball that can predict the future of inventions, a graveyard with the name Kumada Kaoru written on it was displayed, causing a commotion that Butagorilla would die soon, but it was later discovered that the graveyard in question belonged to his great-grandfather (he took the name Kaoru from his great-grandfather). From around the middle of the story, when Tongari tries to prioritize his school over his relationship with Butagorilla and the others, he starts to force him to go along with it, saying "Which is more important, school or (the name of a person or thing)?" (Chushingura also said this once). In both name and reality, he has a presence that overshadows the main characters, Kiteretsu and Korosuke. He is often portrayed as weak when it comes to fighting, losing not only to upperclassmen, but also to Tongari, Satsuki, and Kumahachi as a child, and even Kiteretsu is somehow able to put up a fight. He has a unique sense of aesthetics, and proposed marriage to teacher Yoshida (voiced by Eriko Hara), the head teacher of the Rainbow Class at Midori Kindergarten. Kiteretsu, Miyoko, and Tongari were also in the same class. Voiced by: Hiroshi Ōtake and later by Naoki Tatsuta.

### Kōji Tongari (尖浩二, Tongari Kōji) (a.k.a., Tongari (トンガリ))

    He is the heir of a wealthy family who owns a vacation home. He is an extreme mama's boy, and cries and calls out "Mama!" at every opportunity. Like Miyoko, he doesn't seem to be bad at studying or sports. Although he is a mama's boy and has an effeminate side, he also has a shrewd side, making friends with girls at cram schools and other elementary schools, and exchanging letters with Satsuki, who has transferred to a new school. He has been crazy about Satsuki ever since she first appeared.
In the 1987 TV special, he was a complete lackey of Butagorilla, boasting about how rich he was, and behaved in a cheeky manner. This remained in the early TV anime version, and at the beginning and early stages of the anime, he was often hostile towards Kiteretsu and Korosuke, but as the series progressed, his character changed, and he eventually became the straight man for Butagorilla, and became good friends with Kiteretsu and Korosuke. He also has an erudite side, which even impresses Kiteretsu. He obeys his mother completely, goes to cram school until late at night, and is the top of his class. He is diagnosed with pseudomyopia in an eye test. He has all the latest toys, including video games and mini 4WDs, and is very skilled at them. His special talent is drawing, and in episode 316 he won a prize in a local children's contest. After seeing his drawing, the owner of the public bath asked him to try his hand at painting a mural inside the bathhouse. He is also blessed with a talent for manga, and even though he was only a fifth-grader, he submitted a work he thoughtlessly to be published in the show's Geragera Comic magazine, and his manga talent stands out among the characters in Fujiko F. Fujio's works. His drawing style and touch are just like Fujiko F. Fujio's. He was shocked when he found out that he had been a cockroach in a previous life thanks to Kiteretsu's invention, the "Past Life Detector". He has run away from home several times, to places like Nagano Prefecture and Izu. His least favorite vegetables are green peppers, and he also doesn't like tomato juice. In a dream, he harshly evaluates Kiteretsu's inventions, calling him "a man who can only rehash old ideas", and is punished by Kiteretsu and Korosuke. Like Kiteretsu and Korosuke, he is often bossed around by Butagorilla, but he is the type to say things clearly. He also says unnecessary things, which can anger Kiteretsu, Butagorilla, and the others. When Kiteretsu and the others go on trips, he is often left behind by Butagorilla's tricks. He has multiple girlfriends, and from what is depicted in the play, he seems to be quite popular. The Tongari family has a villa on "Hyakujo Island" (a fictional island) which appears many times in the story. They fly to the island in their private plane and spend their summer holidays here. He is constantly bullied by Butagorilla, so to relieve his stress he secretly goes to a boxing gym without telling Butagorilla and his parents, and hits a punching bag like Butagorilla, but Kiteretsu and the others find out that he is going to the boxing gym. Korosuke also starts going to the gym with Tongari to relieve the stress he gets from being bullied every day. Eventually, his mother and Butagorilla find out that he is going to the gym and he quits. It seems that he didn't have much of a sense for boxing. After graduating from high school, he goes to Takao University. His face is different in "New Kiteretsu Encyclopedia". When he was in kindergarten, he was called "Pee-in-the-piss Ton-chan", and it seems he still has trouble with incontinence. In episode 235, he tries to use Kiteretsu's gadgets to gain confidence and become more manly, but he becomes too confident and ends up failing. In episode 323, he gets permission from his mother to keep the stray cat that saved his life. Voiced by: Ryū Manatsu and later by Yūji Mitsuya.

### Benzō Karino

    At first, he was a student who had failed entrance exams six times, but after six attempts, he was accepted as a reserve student and entered the Faculty of Economics at Takao University. He wears a stand-up collar school uniform in both summer and winter. He is a member of the Stone Buddha Study Group.
He is originally from Yamagata Prefecture and has a simple personality. He starts speaking in a Tohoku dialect from the middle of the story. He is always kind to Kiteretsu and his friends, lending them advice and wisdom, but he is an unreliable older brother type who often fails at the most crucial moments. He is also an extremely anxious person, and easily gets hurt and depressed. He has a girlfriend named Yuki, but Tsutomu is constantly worried that she might start to notice other guys or that she might dislike him. His special skills are flute and knitting. He sometimes visits people while they are eating. He is a fan of pachinko to the point of being addicted, but has refrained from playing since the Doraku Tsuzura incident. He also likes alcohol, and once got so drunk that he mistook a human for a bus stop and carried him home. According to Eitaro, he can wear the same clothes for a week and still be fine with it. When he was a boy, he was tied to a pillar as punishment for mischief. When he was in middle school, he went to Shimotsuke Zoo (a parody of Ueno Zoo) to see the pandas as a representative of the village. His car is a red Mini Cooper with the license plate number "Nerima 777 Nu 53-00". It appears frequently in the anime. This car is so old that it leaks, and is a piece of junk. Because of this, it easily overheats, and has a "chronic problem" of engine failure whenever it goes up a slope. He was once towed away for parking illegally, which caused him to panic. When he first got his driver's license, Tsutomu's driving was dangerous; his body would stiffen up on roads that he hadn't taken during his driving lessons, he would drive on footbridges, and his personality would change when he got behind the wheel, and he would become a speed freak. However, he gradually became a safer driver. However, even after he got used to it, he often had trouble, such as stalling on Irohazaka. Once, Tongari told him he was a bad driver and he drove recklessly. To make ends meet, he works hard at part- time jobs, but he has never been able to settle in one, moving from job to job, such as working as an assistant director at a TV station or working at a delicatessen. Moreover, he seems to make an extraordinary number of mistakes at most of his part-time jobs, and is often fired. He once tried contact lenses, but not only did his eyes look rounder, but people who saw his face burst out laughing, which was unpopular. When he wore sunglasses, he looked like a villain, and his unique sense of fashion made people around him scared of him. He also shaved his head for a part-time job as a monk. In episode 307, despite going through a lot of hard work to get into university, he was not prepared to submit his report, so he stayed up for three nights and only managed to avoid repeating the year with the help of Kiteretsu and the others. He also received more treatment in the anime version than in the original, and along with Korosuke and Butagorilla, he caused all kinds of trouble as one of the three major troublemakers. Voiced by: Kaneta Kimotsuki.

### Michiko Kite (木手美智子 Kite Michiko)

    Kiteretsu's mother. Voiced by: Yuri Nashiwa and later by Sumi Shimamoto.

### Eitarō Kite

    Kiteretsu's father. Voiced by: Hideyuki Tanaka and later by Yusaku Yara.

### Kumahachi Kumada

    Butagorira's father.He owns a vegetable shop Voiced by: Takeshi Aono.

### Sayuri Kumada

    Butagorira's mother. Voiced by: Noriko Uemura.

### Kōichi Tongari

    Tongari's father. Voiced by: Sanshirō Niita, followed by Hirohiko Kakegawa and Masato Hirano.

### Takako Tongari

    Tongari's mother. Voiced by: Yuka Ōno.

## Media
### Manga

* Kiteretsu Daihyakka vol. 1–3 (Tentōmushi Comics, Shogakukan, 1977)
* Kiteretsu Daihyakka vol. 1–4 (Fujiko F. Fujio Land, Chūō Kōron Shinsha, 1984)
* Kiteretsu Daihyakka vol. 1–2 (Shogakukan Koro r Bunko, Shogakukan, 1984)
* My First BIG Kiteretsu vol. 1–2 (Shogakukan, 2003)

### Anime

The manga was later adapted into an anime series, which aired on Fuji TV between March 27, 1988 and June 9, 1996.

#### Staff

* Planning: Taihei Ishikawa→Kenji Shimizu (Fuji TV), Yoshirō Kataoka (Asatsu)
* Producers:
** Kenji Shimizu→Minoru Wada→Yoshihiro Suzuki (Fuji TV)
** Yoshio Kataoka→Kazuhiko Ishikawa→Tateshi Yamazaki→Yutaka Sugiyama (Asatsu)
** Akio Wakana (Gallop)
** Tetsuo Kanno (Staff 21)
* Script: Shun'ichi Yukimuro, Takashi Yamada, Toshiyuki Aoshima, Satoshi Namiki, Tadaaki Yamazaki
* General Animation Directors: Tsukasa Tannai, Kazuyuki Kobayashi, Hajime Watanabe, Nobuyuki Tokinaga, Shōjurō Yamauchi
* Art Director: Shichirō Kobayashi→Satoshi Shibata
* Backgrounds: Kobayashi Production, Studio Kanon
* Director of Photography: Shigeo Sugimura (credited as Yasuhiro Shimizu for part of it)→Hiroaki Edamitsu
* Music Director: Nobuhiro Komatsu
* Music: Shunsuke Kikuchi
* Director: Hiro Katsuoka→Keiji Hayakawa
* Executive Producer: Mikio Wakana
* Sound Producer: Yōsuke Kuroda

#### Theme songs
##### Opening theme songs

Listing includes the song title followed by the episodes and the singer in parentheses.
* Kiteretsu Daihyakka no Uta (キテレツ大百科のうた "The Song of Kiterestu Encyclopedia") (90-minute special on November 2, 1987, Mitsuko Horie)
* Oyome-san ni Natte Agenaizo (お嫁さんになってあげないゾ) (ep. 1–24, Kaori Moritani)
* Body dake Lady (ボディーだけレディー) (ep. 25–60, Junko Uchida)
* Yumemiru Jikan (夢みる時間) (ep. 61–86, Megumi Mori)
* Hajimete no Chū (はじめてのチュウ) (ep. 87–108, Anshin Papa)
* Suimin Busoku (スイミン不足) (ep. 109–170, Chicks)
* Oryōri Kōshinkyoku (お料理行進曲) (ep. 171–331, Yuka)

##### Ending theme songs

Listing includes the song title followed by the episodes and the singer in parentheses.
* Korosuke Machi wo Yuku (コロ助まちをゆく) (90-minute special, Kyōko Yamada)
* Magical Boy Magical Heart (マジカルBoyマジカルHeart) (ep. 1–16, Kaori Moritani)
* Lace no Cardigan (レースのカーディガン) (ep. 17–24, Kaori Sakagami)
* Korosuke Rock (コロ助ROCK) (ep. 25–60, Junko Uchida)
* Felt no Pencase (フェルトのペンケース) (ep. 61–86, Megumi Mori)
* Merry ha tada no Tomodachi (メリーはただのトモダチ) (ep. 87–108, Toshiko Fujita)
* Hajimete no Chū (はじめてのチュウ) (ep. 109–170, 213–290, 311–331, Anshin Papa)
* Happy Birthday (ep. 171–212, Yuka)
* Uwasa Kiss (うわさのキッス) (ep. 291–310, TOKIO)

### Television drama

In January 2002, NHK aired a two-hour one-shot live action drama featuring a CGI Korosuke voiced by Mami Koyama. It was originally aired on NHK Educational TV on January 1, 2002.

### Games

* On February 23, 1990, Epoch released an action game for the Famicom.
* On July 15, 1994, another action game, Kiteretsu Daihyakka: Bouken Ouedo Juraki, was released by Video System for the Game Boy.
* A board game titled Kiteretsu Daihyakka: Chōjikū Sugoroku was released on January 27, 1995 by Video System for the Super Famicom.
* Another game was made for the Sega Pico.

## Differences between Manga and Anime finale

Kiteretsu Daihyakka manga and anime have final chapters. However, the final chapter differs in the manga and anime.

### Manga

In the final chapter of the manga version of Kiteretsu Daihyakka, Eiichi Kite's mother threw away the Encyclopedias because she was afraid he wasn't studying enough. They managed to salvage a page that showed how to make a device that could smell something you were looking for. Eiichi Kite was unsuccessful and decided to stop making things.

### Anime

In the final episode of the anime version of Kiteretsu Daihyakka, a thief enters the home and steals the encyclopedias, thinking they're valuable. Unfortunately the thief wasn't wearing the glasses and thought it was just a bunch of blank pages so he threw it in a passing garbage truck. So Eiichi and friends decide to travel back in time to get the books straight from his ancestor, whom they come across (but ill). It was then revealed that Korosuke was actually a recreation of the ancestor's dead son. Unfortunately it turned out that he is wanted by the army of samurai and must escape. Eiichi helps him escape through a teleportation tape, but just before he does Korosuke announces that he's staying behind to look after his "dad". Eiichi agrees, and they both agree not to say goodbye, saying that they will meet again in the future. The two escape as Eiichi and the friends return to their time.

## Reception

The anime was ranked 31st on a list published by TV Asahi in 2005 of the top 100 anime. The series was said to be "little more than a respray of the creators' earlier and far more successful Doraemon". The Review Geek indeed noted that, "In some instances, Kiteretsu Encyclopedia feels like a Doraemon clone. This series not only shares the same creator as Doraemon; it follows a similar episodic premise involving a robot and a human. This show includes a cartoon-like art style and is an enjoyable series to watch when you feel stressed or worn out".
The same media wrote that the series "relie[d] on its charming family dynamics and varied humor to keep the audience entertained".

## International broadcast
### South Korea

The series aired in South Korea on Cartoon Network. Like in the Korean version of Doraemon, all characters' names except Korosuke were changed to Korean names.

### India

Hungama TV in 2007. Later on Disney XD, Disney Channel, Pogo & Cartoon Network. An English dub of the anime aired in India on Cartoon Network. A remastered version of the series is aired on Hungama TV from April 2021 in India.

### Arab world

Kiteretsu Daihyakka is broadcast in the Arab world through the Spacetoon channel based in the United Arab Emirates. Like the Korean version of Kiteretsu Daihyakka, the characters' names have been changed, but unlike the Korean version, all the characters' names, including Korosuke's, have been replaced with Arabic names.

### Turkey

Kiteretsu Daihyakka has been broadcast on the Spacetoon Turkey channel since January 20, 2025. As in the Arabic version of Kiteretsu Daihyakka, the names of all characters, including Korosuke, have been changed to Turkish names.

### Spain

The series was licensed for Spain by LUK Internacional under the title of "Kiteretsu, el primo más listo de Nobita" (English translation: Kiteretsu, Nobita's Smarter Cousin).