Obake No Q-Taro (partially found various anime series based on manga, 1965-1987)

Q-Taro

Status: Partially Found (1965 series and Shin Q-Taro) / Partially Lost (1985 series)

Work in progress

Obake no Q-Taro is a manga series created by Fujiko Fujio. It is about the titular mischief-making ghost named Q-Taro who loves scaring people, but cannot transform and is also Cynophobic, meaning he is afraid of dogs. Initially written by both authors between 1964 to 1966, Fujio F started handling the series without Fujio A's involvement from 1971 to 1974.

There were three anime adaptations made for it between the 60's and 80's. The first of which is simply titled "Obake no Q-Taro

Despite this, the rights to the original manga are in limbo as both Fujio F and Fujio A own both rights to it, and remained that way even after they both split up, which is muddied even further when they both died in 1996 and 2022 respectively. As a result, none of its various anime adaptations were given a DVD release or are available in any streaming service.

Availability

Both the 1965 series and Shin Q-Taro are difficult to find, with only the opening and ending animations for both, as well as various clips being available online. While a single full episode from the former series exists on Youtube, no episodes of Shin Q-Taro have been known to exist in full. The 1985 series, on the other hand, is the easiest to find, as episodes 28 to 442 are available in torrents, and a number of them were also released on VHS, as well as having reruns air on occasion on Tele-Asa channel 1. However, episodes 1 to 27 and 443 to 510 currently remain lost.