No-Good Father

**No-Good Father** (ダメおやじ *Dame Oyaji*) is a gag manga by Mitsutoshi Furuya, initially ghostwritten by Fujio Akatsuka, that was serialized in Weekly Shonen Sunday from 1970 to 1982.

## Overview

Damesuke Amano can't catch a break in life. He's despised as incompetent among the juniors at his company, and his own family abuse him whenever he comes home. Each day, he prays for security and happiness, but merely for himself.

Initially, the series was a co-production between "Mitsutoshi Furuya and Fujio Pro", with Akatsuka writing the plots and doing the sketching for each chapter. However, this soon died down as Furuya began to handle more of the duty himself and Akatsuka would leave for New York for a period in 1971, with the series being Furuya's whole work soon after. Even so, Damesuke and others of his family may pop up in other Akatsuka works of the time either due to Furuya's involvement in them or Akatsuka himself wanting to honor the series.

The content of this series was shocking and radical for the 1970s, to subvert the idea of the father in a family being a respected and capable person. Yet as time went on and the concept of fathers having the most authority began to decline due to absence from their work and family, plus Furuya realizing he hadn't really done any major changes to the title and characters, the setting was soon overhauled.

In the later portion of the series, Damesuke soon gains fortune in a chance encounter with a wealthy young woman named Himiko Yamato. He becomes president of a new large company, "No-Good Father", and becomes respected by his family. This leads him to more new encounters and friends, newer job prospects, and a way for him to go soul-searching on his own through the country.

In 1999, Furuya revisited the series for a "Heisei Version No-Good Father" one-shot as part of Weekly Shonen Sunday's 40th anniversary. In the story, an aged Damesuke Amano is shown several years after the events of the series, and Onibaba has long since died.

## Characters

### Damesuke Amano

The "No-Good Father". A hapless middle-aged salaryman, treated as "thing" by his boss and co-workers. He is abused mercilessly by his wife, but also by his children. Even if he tries to escape home or strike back, he can never succeed for long against them. However, he may be treated kind if he produces good results at work, but this is for their benefit.

After becoming the president of the "No-Good Father" company, his family becomes kinder and even encourages him to not have to work so hard. He later resigns from this company and finds pleasure in other jobs, including a hotel. Eventually, he decided to go on a journey of self-discovery, not telling his family as he settles down in a village to learn more about the concept of human happiness.

### Fuyuko Amano, "Onibaba"

Damesuke's brutish, horrible wife who schemes to make his life hell and behaves violently towards him. She was originally a rich, beautiful woman, but considers her marriage to Damesuke to be her downfall. Whenever Damesuke gets a bonus or does well, she will show a gentle and affectionate side.

Once Damesuke becomes president of his own company and brings in great fortune for the family, this relieves Onibaba in seeing that her husband is able to assert himself and be strong, and she stops her cruelty towards him.

Her design was a key inspiration for that of the protagonist of *Obatarian* by Katsuhiko Hotta.

### Yukiko Amano

The eldest child of the family, in her early 20s and working as an office lady. She is beautiful but a ruthless, terrible daughter who has no qualms in harassing her father as well. Though she is good-looking, she has little luck with men in part due to her awful personality. After Damesuke's great fortune, her appearances decrease, though she later finds a boyfriend.

### Takobo Amano

The middle child, an elementary school student. He bullies his own dad, but it is also not uncommon for him to be punished by Onibaba as well. He is only good at P.E. in school and is often bullied and pushed around by classmates, leading to Damesuke to try to help his son. However, Damesuke will sometimes wind up beat up by the bully's parents in turn.

For some time in the series, Takobo goes missing after falling into a river and is feared dead by his family, but is in fact alive and amnesiac and eventually returns home. After Damesuke falls into great fortune, Takobo becomes the best player in his youth baseball team but still finds himself lacking and unable to study homework.

### Ikataro Amano

The youngest child, who is born within the series and grows up quickly throughout. He is very intelligent and cruel, being powerful in a fight not only against his father but able to beat up Takobo and threaten his mother as well. Even though he is a small child, he loves to drink alcohol and can get particularly violent when drunk.

After his father becomes president, Ikataro continues his bullying ways. Later, when his father began living in Okuyama Village, Ikataro found him and began to live there as well, becoming a skilled ninja.

### Rokube

A talking dog that is a good friend of Damesuke. He has connected eyes much like a certain police officer from Akatsuka works.

However, due to Rokube's association with Damesuke, he can wind up falling into terrible luck and subjected to Onibaba's wrath as well.

### Himiko Yamato

A lovely young woman that marks a turning point in Damesuke's life. She appoints him president of her company, and figures that he can help bring her dream of a "Utopia" come to life. Even as Damesuke changes jobs after, she remains his advisor and pushes him to find ways to consider the happiness of mankind and unify his heart.

### Megane-san and Master

A customer and bartender at Bar Unchiku. They are best known, however, for being re-used in Furuya's *Bar Lemon Heart* series.

### Daizaemon

A dog that Damesuke meets while living in Okuyama Village. Damesuke and Ikataro soon find that the dog can not only speak like a man, but that he acts like one as well.

### Shoun Kozumi

A mysterious young boy living in Okuyama Village who claims to have developed a time machine. He gets along well with Daizaemon, and is also revealed to be into UFOs and classical music.

## Serialization

* Weekly Shonen Sunday: #43 for 1970 to #30 for 1982. Also took part in the crossover feature of "Bukkare\*Dan and No-Good Father" for 1971 #12 and #13

### Spin-off: "No-Good Father and Takobo"

(ダメおやじとタコ坊)

Though there had already been a few brief spinoffs of the title in Shogakukan's grade school magazines, the 1974 *No-Good Father* anime inspired the creation of more as tie-in material. This particular title, as well as others, would have the main focus be on Takobo to appeal more to younger readers.

* Elementary School 4th Grade: June 1974-March 1975. This version was written and illustrated by Akira Saito.
* Elementary School 5th Grade: 1974- ?1975 by Mitsutoshi Furuya.

### Other Spin-offs:

* **Hanasaki No-Good Father** (Elementary School 6th Grade, 1972)
* **Do Your Best, Takobo** (がんばれ　タコ坊, Elementary School 2nd Grade, 1973)
* **Takobo** (Elementary School 1st Grade, 1974)
* **Takobo's Family** (Elementary School 3rd Grade, 1974)- Art by Akira Saito
* **No-Good Father** (Elementary School 6th Grade, 1974)

## Reprints

* Akebono: 21 volumes. This reprinting introduced the pattern of referring to chapters (up to volume 3) as "The 1st/2nd/etc. Unfortunate Story".
* Shogakukan "Shonen Sunday Comics": 18 volumes. Due to Akebono discontinuing their collection of the series, the rest was reprinted through this edition. After the fourth volume of this release, the subtitle "My Way" is included.
* eBookJapan: 39 volumes. After December 2017 however, the eBook release was split into two portions; digitization of the original Akebono volumes (making 21, and branded as "The Original No-Good Father") and Shonen Sunday Comics (18).

## Other Media

### Anime

An animated adaptation by Knack was broadcast on Tokyo Channel 12 (now TV Tokyo) from April 12 to October 9, 1974 for 26 episodes.

It had a limited 6-volume VHS release through the late 1980s, which excluded the first and final episodes, but would not be put on other home media.

### OVA

In 1989, to capitalize on the "Obatarian" boom and as a way to allude to their upcoming TV special of such, Sunrise produced a short OVA adaptation that was included as an extra on the final VHS volume. Many characters were recast, and the animation style differed from the more infamously limited take by Knack.

It is sometimes speculated but ultimately unknown if this OVA was also meant to serve as a pitch pilot for a new animated take on the manga as other Showa manga had been revived in such a way around this time. Either way, no such thing ever happened.

### Live-Action Movie

A live-action adaptation was released through Shochiku on November 22, 1973. It changes settings considerably, such as changing the protagonist's name to "Daisuke Amano" and excluding Yukiko, as well as the family living in a housing complex instead of their own home. It was released on DVD in 2012.