Obake no Q-tarō

Obake no Q-tarō (オバケのQ(キュー)太郎), by Fujiko Fujio, is a Japanese manga about a ghost, Qtarō (Sometimes also spelled as Q-tarō) who lives with the Ōhara family. Qtarō, also known as Q-chan or Oba-Q, is a mischief-maker who likes to fly around scaring people and stealing food. However, he himself is deathly afraid of dogs.

The story is formulaic, usually focussed on the antics of Qtarō and his friends.

The manga was drawn in 1964–1966 by Fujiko Fujio (Fujiko F. Fujio and Fujiko Fujio A) and in 1971–1974 by Fujiko F. Fujio.

There are three anime series of Qtaro. The first anime adaptation of Obake no Qtarō was shown on the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) and ran from 1965–1968. Machiko Soga was the voice of Qtarō. The series was especially popular amongst younger children, preceding Doraemon. It also ran outside Japan, in Hong Kong under the name Q-tailong. The second series ran from 1971–1972 on Nihon TV, and the third series ran from 1985–1987 on TV Asahi.

Characters

 * Q-tarō (Q太郎)
 * The protagonist of the manga, Q-tarō has a fear of dogs and cannot transform although he is an obake (ghost).


 * Shōta Ōhara (大原 正太)
 * A friend of Q-tarō, Shōta Ōhara is a grade school boy. Q-tarō calls him "Shō-chan" (正ちゃん) and Shota calls Q-tarō "Q-chan" (Qちゃん).


 * U-ko (U子)
 * U-ko, a judoka, is Q-tarō's girlfriend obake.


 * Dorompa
 * Dorompa is an American obake. Q-tarō tend to have a rivalry towards him due to the fact that U-ko idolizes Dorompa's intelligence and he likes to annoy Q-tarō.


 * P-ko (P子)
 * P-ko is Q-tarō's younger sister.


 * O-jirō (O次郎)
 * O-jirō is Q-tarō's younger brother. Although he can understand others' speech, he can only say "bakeratta." Only Q-tarō understands what O-jirō says.