Okazu-chan

**Okazu-chan** (おカズちゃん) is a short-term shojo serial by Fujio Akatsuka. It ran in Kodansha's Fun 5th Grader magazine from April 1960 to March 1961.

After its completion, the series Boku Knows Best took its place and ran through the following year.

## Overview

This series revolves around Okazu, a hungry young girl who thinks all about food and searches for the perfect things to eat.

The concept comes from the idea that a full belly will bring happiness from the satisfaction, so Okazu will eat to satisfy herself and sharing her food will make others happy.

Okazu can be seen as an early example of Akatsuka's "mischievous protagonist"-type young girls that will not be easily deterred by outside forces and that'll do what they can to get their own way. In her case, being denied food or her aim to eat something she likes will drive her motivation in each story.

Later protagonists who compete against such odds of having their fun denied, or who actively interfere in affairs to stir up their amusement, would include Jajako-chan and Hippie-chan and their respective series.

## Characters

### Okazu

A cheerful glutton. She loves food so much that she will attempt to intrude in on others' eating, only to be chased away, or she will try to sort through garbage to find any wasted food that is still edible.

Her eyes are always depicted shut, usually in happiness but it is near-impossible to make them open no matter what her emotion is.

To further tie back to the food theme of the series, Okazu gets her name from the word for "side dish" in a meal, but it can also be seen as an honorable spelling of "Kazu" (what with the 'o' prefix), a shortening for Kazuko.

### Mama

Okazu's mother, who experiences her daughter's impatient hunger and cravings.

## Serialization

All in all, there are 12 chapters of the series that were published during its run. 4 of these have not appeared in any reprints.

1. **"Croquette, Senbei, Tamagoyaki"** (コロッケせんべいたまごやき, April 1960)- Second chapter in the "Ohana-chan" Akebono extra content.
2. (おヤツでがめつくもうけます, May 1960)- Third chapter in the Akebono volume.
3. Untitled chapter (June 1960)- Reprinted as the very first story in the Akebono volume.
4. (きゅうりはつけもの?さんばいず?, July 1960)- *unreprinted*
5. **"Okazu-chan's Summer Vacation Diary"** (おカズちゃんの夏休み日記, August 1960)- *unreprinted*
6. (きんぎょのおカズ何にしよう?, September 1960)- Fourth chapter in Akebono.
7. **"Let's Play with Dakko-chan"** (だっこちゃんとあそぼう, October 1960)- *unreprinted*
8. **"My Autumn, My Appetite of Autumn"** (わたしの秋　食欲の秋, November 1960)- Sixth chapter in Akebono.
9. **"Push-Selling Santa Claus"** (押し売りサンタクロース, December 1960)- *unreprinted*
10. **"Eating Hot Pot Cuisine"** (おセチ料理のたべあるき, January 1961)- Seventh chapter in Akebono.
11. **"Let's Make Ice Tempura!"** (こおりのテンプラつくりましょ!, February 1961)- Eighth chapter in Akebono.
12. **"Okazu-chan's Cooking Class"** (おカズちゃんのお料理教室, March 1961)- Fifth chapter in Akebono.

## Reprints

* Akebono: 8 chapters reprinted as extra content in "Ohana-chan"
* Shogakukan: Above volume digitized as part of the Complete Works DVD-ROM set.

The entire series has yet to be reprinted or put up in eBook form.

## External Links

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