Unproduced Adaptations of Fujio Akatsuka Works

Although certain manga creations of Fujio Akatsuka were popular and fortunate enough to cross over to an animated format, there were also cases where plans to bring such adaptations to life did not happen due to various circumstances.

This article will cover such instances where known.

## 1960s

### The Genius Bakabon

**Proposed for**: October 1968

**Studio**: Nippon TV Douga

**Channel**: Nippon Television Network

Nippon TV Douga announced their plans to adapt the series in March 1968, but only managed to ever complete a pilot episode that was done in full-color (rare at the time). By the time the series was scheduled to air, it had since been canceled due to "problems with the source material" and issues in production. The pilot film itself has never surfaced in any degree.

Following Nippon TV Douga's failure to produce the television adaptation, Studio Zero would announce their own plans in December 1968. However, this later plan in itself never appeared to get far at all.

Not all hope was lost for *Bakabon* in the end, as eventually Tokyo Movie would produce a 1971 animated series.

### Extraordinary Ataro

**Proposed for**: October 1968

**Studio**: Studio Zero

**Channel**: Unknown

Studio Zero had announced plans for an anime adaptation of this series in July 1968, with an October release said to be imminent although no network was named. Yet by December of the same year, Studio Zero would update the project's status to merely be "under consideration" along with that of their Bakabon plans.

Ultimately, it would appear that Toei's *Ataro* going into production would have nixed these plans, and that program would air on NET in April of 1969.

### Good Morning with Mi-tan

**Proposed for**: January(?) 1969

**Studio**: Toei Animation

**Channel**: NET

It was considered by Daisaku Shirakawa as the follow-up program to occur after *Sally the Witch* wrapped up its run. However, he soon became more favorable to the idea of adapting Akko-chan, as she would also be a magical girl like Sally.

It is unknown if this proposal ever got as far to be a pitch document, rather than just consideration of it occuring.

## 1970s

#### Bukkare\*Dan

**Proposed for**: 1970 or 1971?

**Studio**: Unknown

**Channel**: NHK

At the time of Bukkare\*Dan's run, it was intended for there to be an animated adaptation to follow. Due to the failure of the series to catch on with readers, it ended abruptly and such plans for animation evaporated.

The studio that was to be assigned to the project is currently unknown, whether it was Toei (who had been commonly adapting Akatsuka works by then or proposing to do such) or even another company like Tokyo Movie. It is also unknown if the pilot ever got as far as to be produced, or was cancelled in the early organization stages. The surprising information about these plans were only made available in Fujio Pro's 1997 exhibition guide, and have yet to ever be clarified further by anyone at the company.

### Karappe of the Wind

**Proposed for**: 1970

**Studio**: Toei Animation

**Channel**: Unknown

A 15-minute series was planned to air, in a 7:30-7:45 timeslot. At the time of the pitch, the comic was still drawn by Akatsuka and the only two major characters were Karappe and Karaten.

### The Great Stupid Detective Kogoro Hakuchi

**Proposed for**: 1970?

**Studio**: Toei Animation

**Channel**: Unknown

This series was also at one point considered by Toei, but never materialized. The planning material dates from late 1969, after the release of the original one-shot, and notes that the one-shot was highly requested to become a regular series.

This project of course, fell through, though *Kogoro* would later get its serialized version in Adventure King in the 1970s.

### Unknown "Akatsuka World" Project

**Proposed for**: Mid-late 1970s

**Studio**: Unknown

The anime writer Masaki Tsuji had remarked of plans to pen the screenplay for an anime project containing "all of Fujio Akatsuka's characters", though he did not specify it were a TV series, special, or movie. Ultimately, this also fell through, with speculation being that it may have been hard to clear the rights to different characters that had been adapted by different studios (although there was no such issue bringing them together for the *Tokiwa-so Story* special).

## 1980s

### The Genius Bakabon (Movie)

**Proposed for**: 1988

**Studio**: Ajiado

A theatrical film of Bakabon was announced in December 1987, with Tsutomu Shibayama slated to do the character designs once again while Mitsuru Hongo would direct. However, this plan came to a halt as Kodansha and other parties decided to approve Pierrot's Osomatsu-kun as the first adaptation to kick off the "Akatsuka boom".

Any lingering chances of the film happening would disappear, as Pierrot opted for their own take on Bakabon to follow up -kun in its timeslot.

## 1990s

### Let's La Gon

**Proposed for**: 1990

**Studio**: Gallop

**Channel**: Fuji TV

A pilot film of Gon was completed, and the intent was for a series adaptation to happen in 1990. Unfortunately, this would not come to pass, for "problems with the source material" that deemed it hard to adapt to a family-friendly series. It was to follow up *Gaki Deka*'s time slot, but the failure of *Gaki Deka*'s adaptation had also killed the idea.

Very little is known about the Gon pilot except for three actors cast for it: Chika Sakamoto played Gon, Kenichi Ogata played Gon's Father, and Shigeru Chiba played Beramatcha.

Had the show successfully happened, this would have made for a third Akatsuka anime airing in the same year as the adaptations of Bakabon and Ataro (and the second besides *Bakabon* to be airing on Fuji TV).

### Akko-chan's Got a Secret! (Continuation of 1988 version)

**Proposed for**: mid-1990

**Studio**: Toei Animation

**Channel**: Fuji TV

After the pressure to prematurely wrap up the 1988 show, the staff were given hope they could resume production after *Chibi Maruko-chan* would wrap its own half-year run and the timeslot would be free again. This did not happen, as the successor show (itself only the first adaptation of *Maruko*, with the second still running to this day) wound up proving to be popular enough to be extended for the rest of the year and all the way to 1992.

It would appear that any plans to seriously continue Akko-chan may have died after this, and the option of a reboot for a newer audience in 1998 would have seemed like a preferrable option compared to having to continue a decade-old series.

## 2000s

### Tamanegi Tama-chan

**Proposed for**: 2004

**Studio**: Unknown

**Channel**: Fuji TV

As Rieko Akatsuka was fond of the work, which her father had created just for children like her in the 1960s, she was adamant on pushing for there to be an animated adaptation. In the end, though it was seriously considered for Fuji TV (and would have been another Akatsuka work to air there as the 1988 *Akko*, *Osomatsu*, and *Heisei Genius Bakabon* had), the lack of willing sponsors and parties for a production committee killed the project before it could even truly take off. The age of the series and the fact that it wasn't considered as big of a work as *Bakabon* and others, despite being popular back in its day, played a part in the hesitance for any sponsors to sign on.

Yoshio Urasawa, who had been involved with such Akatsuka works mentioned above, was said to have penned a pilot script for the show.

## 2010s

### Osomatsu-kun/Osomatsu-san (early, unproduced version)

**Proposed for**: Around 2013-2014

**Studio**: Pierrot

**Channel**: TV Tokyo

Although the writer and director Toru Hosokawa hoped he could eventually adapt "Bakabon" for the 21st century, the orders came from Fujio Pro around approximately 2013 for a new adaptation of Osomatsu-kun, and Pierrot was keen on having that be the start of a new potential "Akatsuka boom".

Unfortunately, as there were no prime-time slots available for a -kun adaptation and any further planning for the series wound up held up for a year, it was deemed to instead move the project to a late-night slot. Hosokawa would then opt to instead suggest the idea of shifting the "-kun" project to a "-**san**" and aging the characters up to be 30-year old salarymen, to have it be more appropriate for an adult airing time and to get away with more mature humor. This version in itself would appear to have been a more direct sequel to -kun.

As the producers at Pierrot and TV Tokyo were not impressed with Hosokawa's pitch, his proposal was thrown out though they still liked the idea of "-san" in itself and asked to use the title and the basic concept of the characters aged up. Hosokawa's first two episodes of his pitch were the only elements that made it into the existing series in some form, but were extensively rewritten by Shu Matsubara.