Nama-chan

The cover of the first volume by Ebookjapan

**Nama-chan** (ナマちゃん ) was the first gag serial by Fujio Akatsuka, which helped start him towards his career of being the "King of Gag Manga". It was previewed in Manga King with the pilot "Nama-chan's Sunday" in November 1958, and would formally start as a series a month after.

## Overview

Shotaro Ishinomori had been asked by Akita Shoten to do a new gag feature for their Manga King magazine, but instead recommended Akatsuka to them for the job. Akatsuka came up with a rough idea for the story and consulted Ishinomori on it, asking him for ideas. Ishinomori gave him the suggestion of "Nama-chan" for the title, with it representing the careless protagonist.

After completing "Nama-chan's Sunday", Akatsuka was surprised to see that Manga King had billed it as the first chapter of a regular feature. The series revolved around Nama-chan and his adventures with his friend Konpe, and his rivalry against the bully Goroshichi. Another character, Kantaro, would be introduced and soon become another recurring cast member.

Akatsuka was assisted on the title by his fiancee Tomoko Ino, who he would marry after leaving Tokiwa-so, and she and Takao Yokoyama would collaborate with him on his other projects of the time.

## Characters

*See List of characters in Nama-chan for more people that may appear in the series*

### Nama-chan

A gluttonous and troublesome young boy who likes making mischief. He loves baseball and ice cream, and is tough in a fight. Though he can often win scuffles with others, he can lose and be vulnerable just as often.

In "Nama-chan's Sunday" and early unreprinted chapters, his full first name is stated as **Namataro**.

### Konpe

The best friend of the protagonist. He's not exactly reliable due to his lax nature, and is weak in fights, but will support Nama however he can. He would also become utilized in Akatsuka's one-shot *OK! Ken-chan*, with some degree of redesign.

### Nama's Mama

A friendly and easy-going housewife who cares deeply for her son, and makes him his favorite foods. However, she can be easily frustrated by his foolishness and pranks.

### Konpe's Sister

A serious and no-nonsense older sister who is tomboyish and quarrelsome. She is quite strong against an opponent.

### Goroshichi

The bully of town and rival of Nama. He is boastful of his strength and hates to lose, and will assert his presence in whatever way.

Goroshichi's design and archetype are basically the precursor to some later bully characters developed in Akatsuka works, including Taisho in the second run of *Akko-chan*.

### Heikichi

Goroshichi's henchman, a lanky young boy who takes notes on his boss' fights and orders. His name reflects his laughs of "Hei~".

### Kantaro

The young son of a kanbutsu (dried vegetables) shop owner. He can serve as a spy and neutral party between Nama and Goroshichi, but comes to tag along with Nama and Konpe or be left vulnerable by them or the bully.

He has a gentler nature than Nama, but is still mischievous and stubborn in his own ways. He debuted within the 1960 publication year, and would become popular enough to get his first spinoff feature in Akita Shoten's *Adventure King*, lasting five chapters from May to September 1961.

Even after *Nama-chan*'s wrap-up, Kantaro's design proved to having staying power as it was initially recycled for Chibita in *Osomatsu-kun*. Some *Nama-chan* plots would also find themselves remade in other gag series, such as *Otasuke-kun*.

When Kenichiro Takai joined Akatsuka and further refined Chibita's design, it also found itself transferred back to a second "Kantaro" feature, before the character was retired and the newer design solely belonged to Chibita.

## Serialization

*See also List of chapters in Nama-chan. There may be some difficulty ascertaining the exact dates, due to a lack of publishing dates given in reprints.*

The first run of *Nama-chan* lasted through December 1958 to March 1961. After this, Manga King would be named "Primary School Studies" for the ensuing period of April-November 1961. The magazine would revert to Manga King for its final batch in December 1961 through May 1962, the title actually wrapping up in the month (April) that Akatsuka's Osomatsu-kun had debuted.

Counting its pilot chapter and special edition appendix stories, there would be at least 45 chapters of *Nama-chan* published over those three serializations.

## Reprints

* Kinran Company: 3 volumes. These seem to have been published around or after 1963, as the cover art depicts Kantaro as having Chibita's then-current redesign (while Kantaro never actually looked that way in the comic).
* Akebono: "Fujio Akatsuka Complete Works", 2 volumes (1968)
* Shogakukan: 2 volumes in the Fujio Akatsuka Complete Works DVD-ROM (2002), reprinting the Akebono release. "Nama-chan's Sunday" is included separately in the "1950s" DVD-ROM book.
* eBookJapan: 2 volumes (2009). "Nama-chan's Sunday" is included in volume 1, while volume 2 features Akatsuka's memoir one-shot "Tokiwa-so Story" as extra content, due to it chronicling the creation of the series.

There has yet to be a full comprehensive release of the series, and the existing volumes available have anomalies with many missing and incorrectly-ordered chapters, as well as stories that were incompletely represented compared to the original magazines.

## Gallery

The cover to Kinran vol.1Cover to Akebono Comics' "Complete Works" vol.1

## External Links

* Nama-chan page at Koredeiinoda (Japanese)
* Buy and read the Nama-chan books at eBookJapan (Japanese)
* "Nama-chan" write-up at the Fujio Akatsuka Preservation Society (Japanese)