Extraordinary Ataro: Nyarome!! What Happened to the Girl When She Learned the Secret of Her Birth!?

**Extraordinary Ataro: Nyarome!! What Happened to the Girl When She Learned the Secret of Her Birth!?** (もーれつア太郎 ニャロメ!!出生の秘密を知ったとき少女に何が起こったのココロ!?) was a live-action TV special aired on May 20, 1985, as part of Fuji TV's weekly series *Monday Dramaland*. It was the first of three Fujio Akatsuka works to be sourced as part of the program.

## Overview

Ataro (Atsushi Kubota) and Akko Yamada (Yoko Oginome) are a pair of siblings that are living on their own in a greengrocer shop in Tokyo, and must deal with the three sons of their barber neighbor Kakuzo (Ryoichi Tamagawa) having a shared desire to all marry Akko.

One day the ghost of their deceased father Batsugoro (Hiroo Oikawa), who had tragically died three months prior, shows on up and drops a shocking bombshell to Ataro: Akko is not actually his daughter nor fully Ataro's sister, as it turns out that she is the product of an affair that Ataro's mother had with Kakuzo. Chaos and drama ensues over this revelation.

Though there is no home video release for the special, it was rebroadcast unexpectedly on the Home Drama Network in April 2019 and has sporadically appeared in reruns after. Fujio Akatsuka contributed original artwork that was seen in the opening and ending titles, eyecatches, and the art for a "Nyarome" shirt seen in the plot.

### Alterations

* Rather than Dekoppachi being Ataro's partner at the greengrocer, it is his (half-)sister Akko that has been by his side. Ataro and Akko are also not depicted as children, but young adults to go along with the casting of Atsushi Kubota and Yoko Oginome and for the purpose of the plot involving Akko being of the age to marry.
* Going by the art used for the special and on its script, the "Akko" character is intended to be a re-use of the protagonist from Akko-chan's Got a Secret!, under a different setting, though Yoko Oginome's short hair makes for a jarring difference between actress and the character designs.
* Batsugoro, due to budget and effects limitations, is not given any ghostly appearance except when using his powers, and usually appears as a simple man in a white funeral kimono and headband. He lacks a beard, but does have his glasses.
* Boss Kokoro is a completely normal human man, with no trace of any tanuki-like features or unusual ambiguity to his nature.
* Nyarome is absent from the plot due to his nature of being a talking anthropomorphic cat, but his likeness is used on the T-shirts of Kakuzo's three sons. It could be said that they are perhaps stand-ins for such an amorous cat.

## Production Staff

* Original work- Fujio Akatsuka
* Director- Kunihiko Yamamoto
* Screenplay- Yutaka Ohara, Toshio Okumura
* Music- Jiro Kuroku
* Theme Song Performance- Yoko Oginome ("Love and the Caribbean")
* Production- Daiei TV, Fuji TV

### Cast

* Ataro Yamada- Atsushi Kubota
* Akko Yamada- Yoko Oginome
* Batsugoro- Hiroo Oikawa
* Kakuzo of the Barber Shop- Ryoichi Tamagawa
* Kakuzo's Three Boys- Toshiro Shimazaki, Yasuo Kawakami, and Susumu Kobayashi (credited under their comedy trio name "HIP-UP")
* Boss Kokoro- Hosei Komatsu
* Kokoro Henchman- Ichiro Ogura
* Sloth Daisaku- Hiromitsu Suzuki
* Additional Roles- Sumiko Yamada, Gen Idemitsu, Masaru Ikeda, Akio Yokoyama, Saburo Ishikura, Mie Azuma, Iwao Dan, Osamu Kurebayashi, Mitsuko Abe, Yukio Imoto, Tomoyuki Ito, Taiten Ogawa, Masuo Sato, Toshiko Chino, Rika Araki, Mayumi Yamamoto, Mayumi Sekiguchi, Naeko Koda

Due to the lack of detailed information on the rest of the plot and staff, it is currently unknown what roles the rest of this cast can be assigned to.

## Trivia

* Mie Azuma was previously associated with an Akatsuka work to some degree, in voicing Jyushimatsu in the 1966 anime adaptation of Osomatsu-kun.

## External Links

* Brief write-up at Monday Dramaland fansite (Japanese)