Good Morning with Mi-tan

Frontispiece featuring the cast

**Good Morning with Mi-tan** (ミータンとおはよう) is a short-term shojo manga by Fujio Akatsuka and Fujio Pro, that ran from January to July 1967 in Ribon.

## Overview

The naughty young angel named Pit gets in trouble with God for being mean to other angels. To teach him a lesson, God transforms Pit into a cat and casts him down to Earth.

Pit is later adopted by a family, who happen to have a young baby "Mi-tan". Pit finds that he is able to understand the baby's language, and the two become good friends.

This work marks a departure from previous shojo titles by Akatsuka, as its leads are not a young girl but a baby boy and talking cat. However, it retains a sentimental yet slightly dysfunctional "slice of life" type pace.

## Characters

In addition to the main stars below, there is a minor use of Akatsuka's Star System; Bokeo shows up in a cameo, Hatabō appears twice as cat friends of Chibira, and other in-jokes can be seen.

### Pit/Chibira

A disobedient angel who liked to cause trouble. After he is transformed into a cat and stuck on Earth, he is given the name "Chibira" by the family he is adopted into. He wishes to return back to Heaven and be his usual angel self, but comes to grow closer to Mi-tan.

Pit's design is basically that of Chibita but with curly hair, while as "Chibira" he resembles Bokeo's cat Tora from Nonsensical NO.1 (and owing to the fact of the Star System, may even be those characters)

### Mi-tan

The infant son of the family. Though he cannot be understood by his family members, he is very intelligent.

He is able to communicate with Chibira in their special language, and is basically a prototype to Hajime of The Genius Bakabon.

### Sumire

Mi-tan's older sister. She insists on keeping Chibira as the pet and keeps sneaking him back into the house when their mother refuses, as she notices Mi-tan loves the cat.

### Mama

A housewife. She does not approve of Chibira being their pet at first, but is eventually convinced to let him stay. Her design is a prototype to Bakabon's Mama in The Genius Bakabon.

### Papa

The salaryman father of the family. He is out for a walk with Sumire and looking for a cat for the family, when they discover Chibira being bullied by kids and decide to take him home.

### God

Pit's boss, who is responsible for his current condition.

## Serialization

The title ran for these seven chapters through 1967:

1. **"Good Morning with Mi-tan"** (ミータンとおはよう)
2. **"Mi-tan's Crisis"** (ミータン危機一髪)
3. **"A Severe Baby"** (きびしい赤んぼ)
4. **"I Want to Return to Heaven"** (天国に帰りたいな)
5. **"Abducted Mi-tan"** (さらわれたミータン)
6. **"I Want to Return to Heaven"** (2) (天国に帰りたいな)
7. **"Let's Remain with Mi-tan a Little More"** (もうちょっとミータンのそばにいようっと)

According to Daisaku Shirakawa of Toei, he had enjoyed *Mi-tan* and had highly considered it as an Akatsuka work that he had wanted to adapt to animated format.

However, when he thought of a series that could run as a replacement for *Magical Witch Girl Sally*, he remembered that Akatsuka had also made Akko-chan's Got a Secret! and instead presented Akatsuka with the offer to adapt that series to animation. Shirakawa found that Akatsuka was surprised that he even remembered *Akko-chan*, as it had not been published in years.

## Reprints

* Bunka: Kashihon edition (1967), however this wound up widely unpublished.
* Akebono: Reprinted as volume 19 of the "Fujio Akatsuka Complete Works" collection in 1970. Eight chapters of "Kikanpo Gen-chan" were included as extra content.
* Shogakukan: The Akebono volume was digitized for the "Fujio Akatsuka Complete Works" DVD-ROM set in 2002. A print-on-demand version is available to residents of Japan through the ComicPark service.

## References

1. ↑ Toei Feature Study No.14, interview with Daisaku Shirakawa

## External Links

* "Good Morning with Mi-tan" at the Akatsuka Preservation Society blog (Japanese)