Waru-chan

**Waru-chan** (ワルちゃん) is a gag work by Fujio Akatsuka and Fujio Pro, serialized in Elementary School 5th Grade.

## Overview

Though Akatsuka had stopped doing features for major shonen magazines as part of an initial aim to retire, he was still in high demand through the early 1980s, in particular from different children's magazine titles. As the succeeding feature to *5th Grade*'s Ojisan is a Persuman, this manga revolves around a naughty young boy known only as Waru-chan. Though he is mistreated and ridiculed by his teacher and classmates, he has quick ways of devising revenge.

During its run, Waru-chan would make a cameo in The Flower of Kikuchiyo, as his classmate Hanako was a character common to that series. Hanako herself was also re-used from the aged-up design of Miyo-chan that was present in chapters of Mame-tan in the early 1980s.

## Characters

### Waru-chan

A small, bald boy with a single hair on his head (but not to be mistaken for a certain other one). No matter how cruel others may be to him, he can come up with the perfect techniques to strike back and make sure they're paid back with his own cruel and creative ways of mischief and revenge.

### Teacher

Waru-chan's teacher, a man with a large three-toothed overbite and eventually bearing an Iyami-esque face (minus any mustache). He likes to pressure Waru-chan and mock him before the rest of the class, earning the child's ire, and find other ways to try to outsmart him. However, he will wind up on the receiving end of Waru-chan's pranks as well.

### Ganta Ishiyama

A rival classmate introduced in the series' second year of publication in April 1982. He is known for his super-strong shaved head. Waru-chan first gets revenge by mowing him down with a steamroller, though Ganta continues to bedevil him in the next chapter with a snake prank.

Aside from his head, Ganta also has super-strong teeth, but after Waru-chan tricks him into biting a brick and causing them to break out of his mouth, he is forced to wear dentures (but the story ends in a victory for Ganta anyway, since the other kids are amused by his castanet tricks with them).

### Hanako

A pretty girl in Waru-chan's class. She initially appears to stick up for him in his defense, and Waru-chan gains a crush on her, but she cruelly manipulates and humiliates him before Ganta and some other boys. This leads to Waru-chan abusing her dog while wearing a "Hanako" mask, causing the dog to violently rip the real Hanako's clothes off and for Waru-chan to snap photos of her to humiliate her before the boys in class.

### Mama and Papa

Waru-chan's parents, a rather normal couple briefly shown in the series when his home is glimpsed.

## Serialization

* Elementary School 5th Grade: April 1981-March 1983

There are 24 chapters in total of the series.

1. (April 1981) - *unreprinted*
2. (May 1981) - *unreprinted*
3. (June 1981)- *unreprinted*
4. (July 1981)- *unreprinted*
5. (August 1981)- *unreprinted*
6. (September 1981)- *unreprinted*
7. **"Athletic Meet"** (運動会, October 1981)
8. (November 1981)- *unreprinted*
9. **"Christmas Party"** (クリスマスパーティー, December 1981)
10. (January 1982)- *unreprinted*
11. **"Ski Trip"** (スキー旅行, February 1982)
12. **"P.E. Class"** (体育の授業, March 1982)
13. **"The Appearance of the Transfer Student Ganta"** (転校生ガン太登場, April 1982)
14. **"Waru-chan's Love"** (ワルちゃんの恋, May 1982)
15. **"Cavities Prevention Day"** (虫歯予防デー, June 1982)
16. (July 1982)- *unreprinted*
17. (August 1982)- *unreprinted*
18. (September 1982)- *unreprinted*
19. (October 1982)- *unreprinted*
20. (November 1982)- *unreprinted*
21. (December 1982)- *unreprinted*
22. (January 1983)- *unreprinted*
23. (February 1983)- *unreprinted*
24. (March 1983)- *unreprinted*

## Reprints

* Shogakukan: Seven selected, out-of-order chapters of the series were collected as part of the Fujio Akatsuka Complete Works DVD-ROM set, along with a print-on-demand edition from ComicPark.

A full reprint of the series, in book or digital form, has yet to happen as of 2020.

## External Links

* Waru-chan write-up at the Fujio Akatsuka Preservation Society (Japanese)