Akatsuka-kun Can Do Anything

The frontispiece to the second chapter, "The Story of the Floating Violin", featuring protagonists $-chan and Chibita.

### Original Run

May to December 1965

**Akatsuka-kun Can Do Anything** (なんでもやろうアカツカくん), later re-titled in reprints as **$-chan and Chibita** ($ちゃんとチビ太), is a short-term 1965 manga series by Fujio Akatsuka and Fujio Pro.

It was the first official spinoff featuring Chibita.

## Overview

After Kantaro's second series ended in Shonen Book, the follow-up feature would change the formula to center around another young boy; the original "new title notice" after Kantaro's title ended in the April 1965 feature would list the new series as being titled "**Do Anything!! Kentaro**" (なんでもやろう!! ケン太郎) and list the work as being about a boy named *Ken*taro, who would be joined by Kantaro as a co-star. Whether or not Kentaro was intended to be a continuation and redesign of Akatsuka's earlier character, as Kantaro had been compared to his old series in Adventure King, is unclear but may be inferred.

However, plans changed for the title rather quickly between the release of the notice and the submission of the first manuscript; not only was the series renamed to "Akatsuka-kun Can Do Anything", but the lead was now named "$-chan"(ドルちゃん) and his co-star was renamed to be Chibita, who had been the more notable character appearing under that design at other publishers. Kentaro/$-chan also became more obvious of a lookalike to other popular protagonists around the time like Osomatsu-kun and Chota, likely to cement him more as Akatsuka's generic "everyman" type boy.

The first two chapter titles were non-standard in comparison to how Akatsuka would title the rest of the stories, simply being the "The Story of (A Fairy Tale)", perhaps stemming back to earlier plans for the series. From the third chapter and on, all stories now included $-chan's name in the title.

$-chan was intended as the actual lead character and often appeared in Shonen Book's table of contents illustrations centering around its "12 Protagonists" of different series, but the popularity of Chibita and his entertaining personality seem to would ensure that Chibita was the one that stood out more in stories. Chibita proved to have more of the staying power, as ultimately he would return to Shonen Book on his own while $-chan would be left as a footnote in Fujio Pro history.

## Characters

In addition to the following cast members, Akatsuka's Star System is employed and Iyami, Hatabō, and Dayōn appear in guest roles along with more minor stars.

Kunio Nagatani would appear to have had some involvement as assistant with the feature, as his character of Sonota can be seen in "$-chan's Big Circus" and Scatan appears in "$-chan's Magic Violin".

### $-chan

The protagonist. He is an average adventure and hustle-seeking 10-year old boy, re-using the design of The Sextuplets with some differences to show him as one of Akatsuka's everyman types. These include freckles, a curled edge to his bangs, as well as a visibly curled edge to his lip that those sextuplets tend to lack.

$-chan is often set as poor and there being suggestion of neglect by his mother, and his greed and love of money thus comes from his state of living (but he can be seeking thrill and riches whatever the case). His full first name is given as "**Dorutaro**" (ドル太郎) in the story "$-chan's Big Circus". As the "Akatsuka-kun" in the original title refers to him, one could conclude his surname as being "Akatsuka" and him also being a stand-in for his author in some sense.

In the two Edo-era stories where he's more of a villain to Chibita's protagonist, he is not identified by the $-chan name except in its titles. One such story involves him playing the part of Musashi Miyamoto, while Chibita is Kojiro Sasaki.

### Chibita

$-chan's friend or enemy, a small boy who often winds up becoming involved in his stories in some way. He would appear to be an orphan or otherwise free-roaming child, who winds up being the natural fit for someone like our protagonist.

### Myu-tan

$-chan's talking pet cat, most notably seen in the story "$-chan's Magic Violin".

### $-chan's Mama

The strict, money-loving mother of $-chan, who puts her son to work to earn a living for their house but would otherwise comically ignore him if he goes missing. It's only a great opportunity for her to buy more for the house.

She slightly resembles the sextuplets' mother, but with smaller glasses (exposing squinted eyes), and her hair worn up in a high bun.

## Serialization

The Akatsuka-kun Can Do Anything/$-chan and Chibita stories originally ran in Shonen Book from May to December 1965.

1. **"The Story of Jack and the Beanstalk"** (ジャックと豆の木の巻, May 1965): In a retelling of "Jack and the Beanstalk", the pauper $-chan trades a cat for beans but winds up discovering a beanstalk growing from them. Together with the thief boy Chibita, he explores a castle that appears to be owned by a giant, but the truth may be even more unusual. Originally serialized with a colored frontispiece. Re-titled "**$-chan and the Beanstalk**" ($ちゃんと豆の木) starting with the kashihon reprint and all later versions.
2. **"The Story of the Floating Violin"** (うかれバイオリンの巻, June 1965): $-chan is given a violin by an alien that crash-landed, and its music causes those who hear it to dance uncontrollably. Re-titled **$-chan's Magic Violin"** ($ちゃんのマジック・バイオリン) in later reprints. Originally serialized with a colored frontispiece, as well as some color pages.
3. **"Musashi Miyamoto $-chan"** ($ちゃんの宮本武蔵, July 1965): Chibita as (Kojiro Sasaki) faces off against $-chan (Musashi Miyamoto) in a sword fight. Re-titled **"What Percentage is a Winning Chance? Chibi Kojiro"** (勝率何割?チビ小次郎), starting in the Futabasha reprints. Originally serialized with a colored frontispiece, which was recycled for volume 2 of the Shonen Book *Kantaro* reprints.
4. **"$-chan's Treasure Island"** ($ちゃんの宝島, August 1965): The poor ramen seller $-chan sets out in search of pirates' treasure, accompanied by Chibita. Originally serialized with a colored frontispiece.
5. **"$-chan and the Man of Snow"** ($ちゃんと雪男, September 1965): $-chan and Chibita set sail on a cruise, but run into trouble in the arctic.
6. **"$-chan's Big Circus"** ($ちゃんの大サーカス, October 1965): Chibita comes to blows with his acrobatic new classmate $-chan, who winds up being the young ringmaster of a circus that Chibita seeks to sabotage.
7. **"Robinson Crusoe $-chan"** ($ちゃんのロビンソンクルーソー, November 1965): $-chan and Chibita become stranded on an island that turns out to be inhabited by cannibalistic natives.
8. **"$-chan the Strongman"** ($ちゃんの弁慶, December 1965): $-chan and Chibita battle it out in the Edo era. Re-titled **"Oden Senbon Chibi Strongman"** (おでん千本チビ弁慶) starting with the Futabasha reprints.

A prologue to the first story designed for reprints, "$-chan and Chibita", also features Akatsuka's speech being interrupted by the characters of the feature in order to introduce themselves. $-chan, Chibita, Myu-tan, and a nameless crook with a bandaged nose are the characters previewed for the audience. The frontispiece for "$-chan and the Man of Snow" was moved to be its own opening illustration.

The original printings for the stories use the dollar sign symbol for $-chan's name, while reprints opt to put it as "Doru-chan" in all katakana for reading ease. However, some chapters in the kashihon edition ("Big Circus", "Robinson Crusoe", "Strongman") retain the original typeface and even have reference to the original *"Akatsuka-kun Can Do Anything"* title. The original color frontispieces to "$-chan and the Beanstalk" and "$-chan's Treasure Island" never appeared in reprints and may be lost.

The immediate successor to the series was the Dayon-ojisan Trilogy, running from January to March 1966. However, another eventual spinoff starring Chibita would be greenlit for the magazine by June 1967.

## Reprints

* Akebono: 1 volume kashihon (1967). Six of the chapters (plus the prologue) were later reprinted as extra content in vol.20 (Mojamoja-ojichan) of the "Fujio Akatsuka Complete Works" in 1970.
* Futabasha: One chapter of the series is reprinted in "Chibita" vol.1, and another in Chibita vol.2. These were the chapters that did not previously make it into the Mojamoja-ojichan release, and were re-titled for these volumes.
* Shogakukan: The Mojamoja-ojichan and Chibita reprints mentioned above are digitized for the 2002 "Fujio Akatsuka Complete Works" DVD-ROM collection, and the stories can be seen in the respective volumes.
* eBookJapan: These stories are reprinted as extra content at the end of vol.2 of "Chibita" (2009). Vol.1 covers the start of the "Chibita-kun" feature, with the rest in vol.2. The versions used in this eBook edition were sourced from the ones seen in the Mojamoja-ojichan volume and the Futabasha volumes.

## External Links

* Chibita at eBookJapan (series contained in vol.2)