Bukkare*Dan

Cover to the eBookJapan edition. This is a traced and altered version of the frontispiece to chapter 5, which was also traced in itself for the reprints.

### Original Run

August 2,1970-March 14, 1971

**Bukkare\*Dan** (ぶッかれ＊ダン) was a short-lived gag manga by Fujio Akatsuka and Fujio Pro. It ran in Weekly Shonen Sunday from August 2, 1970 (#32) to March 14, 1971 (#11).

## Overview

After the end of *Extraordinary Ataro* and its follow-up *Gag + Gag*, Akatsuka attempted to explore a new idea for his editors at Weekly Shonen Sunday, who wanted a new trend to follow up the "Nyarome boom" that *Ataro* had caused before the series had been cut short by the anime's cancellation. Akatsuka's editorial department had also been convinced he could craft a strong hit to compete with that of Go Nagai, whose *Shameless School* and *Abashiri Family* titles were dominating Weekly Shonen Jump and Weekly Shonen Champion at the time and made him a worthy gag opponent to Akatsuka.

Akatsuka thus decided to take a gag idea he had stored in his mind for a few years, of an "elementary school newlywed couple", and saw it as an opportune time to finally develop it as he saw that "cohabitation" type series were becoming more popular. He aimed to oppose Go Nagai's own raunchy works with something that would be wild in its own way but also have a cheerful home drama element with its protagonists.

The ultimate pitch of *Bukkare\*Dan* was inspired loosely from Takeo Tomishima's then-recent controversial "Small Wife" (おさな妻) light novel stories, about a high school girl who married a widowed father and became the new mother to his nursery school-aged daughter. In Akatsuka's series, the plot would center around a fifth grade elementary school couple (Dan and Ai) who considered themselves married as husband and wife. Their teacher, Mr. Gesupeta, has feelings for Ai and gains the motive to find out the mystery of their situation. It was a departure from earlier gag works by Akatsuka, and meant to be more of a love comedy. There was minimal usage of Akatsuka's Star System, and his assistant Mitsutoshi Furuya also handled art duties throughout the title.

It was considered a failed work by Akatsuka, who noted he could not "break a new shell" in gag manga as it did not last a full year in Shonen Sunday or catch on well with readers. When *Dan* was running against the boom of popular newer authors like Nagai, as well as George Akiyama's *Zeni Geba* in the very same magazine, Akatsuka found that he was unable to compete with them in the "shameless" factor no matter what dysfunctional gags were introduced (such as Gesupeta's colleague Fly Man).

Around the same time however, Akatsuka had helped plot and illustrate Furuya's ***No-Good Father*** (ダメおやじ *Dame Oyaji*), tackling half of the chapters for its first publication year in total. In the end, it would be that other series that would wind up earning greater success, though Akatsuka and Fujio Pro's involvement would end and provide Furuya the opportunity to go entirely solo on it.

*Bukkare\*Dan* was eventually followed up by the more successful Let's La Gon. Unlike other Star System characters from bigger series, it is much rarer and infrequent to see Dan, Ai, or Mr. Gesupeta show up in other works though it is still an occasional possibility.

During its short run, NHK consulted with Akatsuka about adapting *Bukkare\*Dan* for an animated series, as they had seen how successful his previous works (*Osomatsu-kun, Akko, Ataro*) had been when broadcast on other networks. It has never been clarified which production studio was behind the pitch, such as Toei or another company, and if there were any preliminary staff that had gotten organized or if it even went as far as a pilot film. Due to the series being discontinued, the anime project fell through.

## Characters

*See also: List of characters in Bukkare\*Dan*

### Dan

(ダン)

A naughty and reckless boy in school, but an old-fashioned husband at home. He is envied by others due to having Ai, and he'll strongly defend her. His and Ai's families have been at odds for over a century, and the two aim to break that by getting together.

During the period of the manga where Ai has been captured by her father, a classmate named Midori attempts to be Dan's new girlfriend but Dan will not be swayed. After Pinta comes into the story, Dan finds that his "son" may be an obstacle in his way of his time with Ai and becomes jealous.

### Ai

(アイちゃん)

Dan's sweetheart, who takes up the role of housewife after school. She is domestic and can cook very well for her young age, and is committed to building a family and future. Though she seems a simple docile girl, she can fend off Gesupeta in some instances with a slap or attack from her broom. She will not hesitate to slap Dan for misbehaving either, and can become jealous if another girl likes him.

After a detective is hired to track her down to Tokyo, it is revealed that she and Dan have become married as a protest and escape from their families who refuse to allow them to see each other. Her father arrives and forcibly takes her away from Tokyo to go back to being part of their pig farm. This necessitates Dan's drive to rescue her, as there's no other girl for him but Ai.

### Mr. Gesupeta

(ゲスペタ先生)

The homeroom teacher. He is a curious but highly jealous and lecherous man who has little else to do with his life, so he follows the two students around and intrudes on their living situation. He aims to solve how and why they could be a married couple at their young age, and what their circumstances are.

He is rather unlucky in love, and the "gesu" (scum) part of his name highlights his unseemly existence. It is shown right off the bat how low he can go when he becomes taken by Ai's appearance and attempts to flirt with her, becoming jealous at hearing how Dan is her husband.

### Pinta

(ピン太)

A scrappy younger child that Dan and Ai decide to adopt as the son of their family after he shows up at their house one day. He is into horse racing and other sorts of gambling at his young age, and likes to get into fights.

He and Dan are shown to feud when they meet, but even when Dan beats him up, he finds that Pinta isn't easily controlled. However, Pinta leaves the series a few chapters before its closure, leaving a farewell note for his parents and abandoning home to go elsewhere.

## Serialization

*See List of chapters in Bukkare\*Dan for more details*

Bukkare\*Dan is a relatively short work due to its cancellation, lasting only 30 chapters; The final two stories featuring Dan and Ai in issues #12 and #13 of Shonen Sunday are technically not the actual finale, but an additional crossover feature between the series and *No-Good Father*.

During its run, it was pre-empted once on September 13, 1970 (#38), due to the death of Akatsuka's mother. This necessitated his assistants to come up with a fill-in story on their own in place of a chapter for that week, which resulted in the one-shot story of **Oh! Great Jailbreak**. This featured characters from The Genius Bakabon, Extraordinary Ataro, Karappe of the Wind, and Osomatsu-kun attempting a breakout from prison.

The 80s Akatsuka series of Romeo and Julie can be seen as a slight spiritual successor, as it involves another "Romeo and Juliet" plot involving a pair of young kids that strive to be together against their parents' odds and leave their farmland behind to do so. The cameo of Ai as "Keiko" in it may have been a further nod.

## Reprints

* Akebono: 3 volumes (1972). As with many other Akatsuka reprints of the time, colored chapters were traced by assistants to create lineart/monochromatic copies while various frontispieces did not make the cut to tankobon format. The second part of "Bukkare\*Dan + No-Good Father" is included in volume 3, while the first part can be found in volume 3 of Akebono's "No-Good Father" release.
* Shogakukan: "Fujio Akatsuka Complete Works" DVD-ROM set (2002); the three Akebono volumes are digitized for the collection.
* eBookJapan: 3 volumes (2010). The "No-Good Father" crossover is deleted, as it is in the eBook release of that other series.

## Trivia

* While the animated adaptation never came to pass, Dan and Ai had their character designs recycled as the children **Yamada-kun** and **Yoko-chan** in the 1979 PSA "Worlds Can Become Deadly Weapons" (言葉が凶器になる). As Furuya had involvement in their series as assistant, they were put alongside his own characters of Onibaba and Takobo from *No-Good Father*, with Takobo being the child abused by Onibaba's horrible insults after she praises Yamada and Yoko on their good grades.

## External Links

* Bukkare\*Dan eBookJapan page (Japanese)