Don Dracula

Don Dracula (ドン・ドラキュラ, Don Dorakyura) is a manga by Osamu Tezuka that began serialization in 1979. An anime television series aired from April 5 to April 26, 1982.^[1]

After living in Transylvania for several years, Count Dracula has moved to Japan (the English summary on the front page of volume 1 of the "Complete Works Edition" says that a mercantile firm bought Castle Dracula and moved it to Tokyo without knowing it was inhabited). In the Nerima Ward of Tokyo, he and his daughter, Chocola, and faithful servant Igor continue to live in the castle.

While Chocola attends night classes at Matsutani Junior High School, Dracula is desperate to drink the blood of beautiful virgin women; an appropriate meal for a vampire of his stature. However, each night that Dracula goes out on the prowl he finds himself getting involved in some kind of disturbance which leads to him causing various trouble for the local residents. With nobody in Japan believing in vampires, his very presence causes trouble amongst the people in town.

The slapstick comedy of the proud vampire adjusting to life in Japan is compounded by Professor Hellsing, Earl Dracula's nemesis for the past ten years. He has come to Japan to exterminate Dracula, but has the tragic flaw of suffering from hemorrhoids. In addition, Dracula is also pursued by Blonda, the first woman Dracula was able to drink blood from when he arrived in Japan. Because Blonda has a face only a mother could love, Dracula wants to get as far away from her as possible.

Published in the same magazine as Black Jack at the same time, Tezuka commented that creating the slapstick antics of the poor vampire was very enjoyable.

Count Dracula

The legendary vampire who finds himself having a harder time living in Japan than he did in Transylvania. He spends his days sleeping in his coffin in the basement of his castle, and his nights prowling the streets of Shinjuku and Shibuya. He's weakened by water (in almost any form) and anything in the shape of a cross. He can be destroyed with a stake through his chest. Sunlight will turn him into dust, but Igor or Chocola will usually vacuum him up and then reconstitute him ala instant ramen with a magic spell that includes a cup of blood plus the contents of the vacuum cleaner.

Chocola

Dracula's daughter who is currently attending night classes at Matsutachi Junior High School in Tokyo. Because she is half-vampire and half-werewolf, Chocola can survive in water just fine, but she will still turn to dust when exposed to sunlight. She can eat normal human food, but prefers human blood. Unlike her father, she is willing to bite men as well as women, but she has accepted that her classmates are off-limits. She is a member of the school's SF club.

Nobuhiko Ōbayashi

Chocola's classmate at Matsutani Junior High, and a member of the school's SF club. He believes in aliens and UFOs, but not old-school creatures like vampires or werewolves. In volume two, he's forced to change to a day school because of his father's job, but he does still occasionally visit Matsutachi.

Rip van Helsing

Dracula's enemy for the past 10 years who is determined to eradicate all vampires on Earth, but he suffers from a severe case of hemorrhoids. He follows Dracula to Tokyo where he gets a job as a teacher in Matsutani Junior High. However, after he tries to make some extra money selling Dracula's "cunning pencils" (hollowed pencils with a lens at one end and the test answers on a rolled up sheet stuck inside) he gets caught and fired. He never actually catches a vampire during the series. He uses the same character design as Astro Boy's Dr. Fooler.

Carmilla

A female werewolf that Dracula was once married to. They divorced shortly after Chocola was born because Camilla wanted to raise Chocola as a human killer. Dracula draws the line at killing humans outright. She only appears in one chapter.

Igor

Dracula and Chocola's servant who is actually quite kind-hearted despite his fierce appearance. Spends most of his time either driving the family horse-drawn carriage, or vacuuming up someone's ashes. His primary weakness is being exposed to naked women.

Blonda Gray

An ugly woman who was the first person Dracula sucked blood from in Japan. Suffers from extremely high blood pressure and was originally married to Dorian Gray back when both of them lived in Prague. As a student, Dorian made a pact with the devil to become successful, which led to his marrying the (at the time) beautiful Blonda, but eventually he became violent and after three years was pulled into a picture frame. Blonda left him at about this point, and moved to Japan where she became a hostess at a bar and began over-indulging herself on ramen.

Police Inspector Murai

An inept gun-toting detective who looks like a cross between Lupin's Inspector Zenigata and Gegege no Ge Kitaro's Nezumi Otoko. Tends to shoot his pistol randomly in the air when excited.

The manga was written by Osamu Tezuka and serialized from May 28 to December 30, 1979, in the magazine Weekly Shōnen Champion published by Akita Shoten. The various chapters were later collected in three tankōbon volumes, published between February 5^[2] and April 9, 1980.^[3]

In Italy, it was published by Kappa Edizioni and translated by Emilio Martini^[4] under the Ronin Manga label on a monthly basis in the Manga Nostalgia collection from April 16^[5] to June 30, 2011.^[6] A reissue by J-Pop, translated by Roberto Pesci^[4] larger than the original and containing all the chapters in two volumes, was published from May 29^[7] to June 26, 2019.^[8]

In France, it was published by Soleil Productions who compiled the story into two volumes, with releasing the first volume on October 25, 2006^[9] and the second on January 24, 2007.^[10]

In Taiwan, the manga was released by Tohon Taiwan, which released the entire series on November 24, 2008.^[4]

The title is "Tezuka Osamu no Don Dracula" (手塚治虫のドン・ドラキュラ, Osamu Tezuka's Don Dracula). It was animated by Jin Production and aired weekly on TV Tokyo from April 5 to April 26, 1982, every Monday from 7:00 PM to 7:30 PM.^[14]

Competing shows at that time slot included: - Game Center Arashi (ゲームセンターあらし) – Nippon TV - Tsurikichi Sanpei (釣りキチ三平) – Fuji TV - Asari-chan (あさりちゃん) – TV Asahi ^[15]

This anime is considered one of the shortest-lived serialized anime ever aired in Japan. ^[a]

Being cut in under a month is extremely rare. The eighth episode, which served as the practical final episode, was based on the first and last chapters of the manga.

Production began a year before airing. Scripts were completed for up to 21 episodes. However, the advertising agency in charge went bankrupt, and without sponsorship to cover broadcasting fees, the show was cut in Tokyo after episode 4. ^{[18] [19] [20]}

Some regional broadcasters aired up to the completed episode 8. ^[21]

• • Koyama Takao (小山高生, then credited as 小山高男), who wrote 18 of the 21 completed scripts, suffered financial loss of approx. ¥500,000 due to bounced payment slips after the ad agency collapsed.
  • Green Box, the subcontracted animation company hired by Jin Production, also dissolved by the end of the year.

Writers Naka Hiroko, Sonoda Hideki, and Terui Keiji had completed final drafts and were set to debut with this show, but ended up debuting through other projects due to the cancellation.

• Original Creator – Tezuka Osamu (手塚治虫)
• Producers – Ikeda Kimio, Kimura Ichiro
• Planning – Tezuka Productions (手塚プロダクション), Sankyo Kikaku (三京企画)
• Series Composition / Scripts – Koyama Takao (小山高生)
• Chief Director – Ochiai Masamune
• Animation Director – Uchiyama Masayuki
• Art Director – Shimokawa Tadaumi
• Music – Yamamoto Masayuki, Jimbo Masaaki
• Producers – Toriumi Toshinao, Niwa Junichi, Yui Masatoshi
• Color Design – Suzuki Kazumi
• Photography – T. Nishimura, Ueda Masahide
• Editing – Sakamoto Masaki (Inoue Editing Office)
• Film Developing – Tokyo Laboratory (東京現像所)
• Recording – Tohoku Shinsha (東北新社)
• Sound Director – Matsuoka Hiroki (Spotlight Kikaku)
• Audio Mixing – Horiuchi Tsutomu
• Sound Effects – Kurahashi Shizuo (Toyo Onkyo)
• Production Manager – Kamiyama Chiaki
• Production Desk – Tanaka Shingo
• Production Progress – Minagawa Takuya, Suzuki Motomu, Suehiro Maki, Imai Hiromi
• Assistant Director – Yamazaki Tomomasa
• Animation Assistance – Green Box
• Production – Sankyo Kikaku, Jin Production

The anime was shown in Brazil in 1984 at the Children's Club of Rede Manchete and in 1994 at Tudo por Brinquedo of CNT.^[22][23] The Brazilian Portuguese dub was produced in Rio de Janeiro by Rede Telecine.^[24]

Released by Nippon Columbia (日本コロムビア), included on several anime compilation CDs.

Opening Theme – "Paradise Dracula" (パラダイスドラキュラ)

Lyrics – Takada Hiroo / Composition – Kuni Kawachi / Arrangement – Takeichi Masahisa

Vocals – Utsumi Kenji, Koorogi '73

Ending Theme – "Otousan wa Kyuuketsuki" (お父さんは吸血鬼 / Dad Is a Vampire)

Lyrics – Koyama Takao / Music & Arrangement – Takeichi Masahisa

Vocals – Niikura Yoshimi, Columbia Yurikago-kai, Koorogi '73

The final shot included the message: **“Jikai o o-tanoshimi ni ne!” (Look forward to the next episode!)** – shown even in episode 4 (Tokyo’s final) and episode 8 (regional final).

All 8 episodes are adapted from the manga with no anime-original stories, though some story details were altered.

Time Slot: Mondays 19:00–19:30

• TV Tokyo (Main station)
• TV Osaka
• Hokkaido Bunka Housou
• Akita TV
• Aomori Broadcasting – Fridays 17:15–17:45
• Tohoku Broadcasting – Fridays 17:00–17:30
• Fukushima TV – Thursdays 16:50–17:20
• Shizuoka Broadcasting – Wednesdays 17:30–18:00
• TV Okayama – Fridays 19:00–19:30 → Cut after Episode 7
• TV Shin-Hiroshima – Tuesdays 16:30–17:00 → Aired all 8 episodes
• TV Kochi – Mondays 17:30–18:00
• RKB Mainichi Broadcasting – Sundays 17:00–17:30
• Kagoshima TV – Saturdays 08:00–08:30

• *Animage* (July 1985 issue, Tokuma Shoten) – Koyama Takao dedicated an essay to this series, calling it a “phantom masterpiece.”

• A board game titled "Don Dracula Game" was released during the broadcast.

It was also given as a prize for manga readers.

• July 22, 1988: VHS released by Tairiku Shobou. ¥1,980.

Edited into 90 minutes containing all 8 episodes.

• April 25, 2002: DVD released by Pioneer LDC as part of the Tezuka Osamu Anime World series.

Price: ¥5,800 (tax excl.) – includes all 8 episodes. The back cover used simplified language with furigana for easier reading by children.

• 2007: All episodes made available as paid streaming via *Yahoo! Douga* under "Tezuka Osamu Anime World" (手塚治虫アニメワールド).
• Promo tagline: “The fastest-canceled anime in Japan…”

• Dec 19, 2013: Opening minutes of Episode 1 made free on YouTube (Tezuka Productions Official Channel).
• Dec 18, 2019: Full Episode 1 available free.
• April 27, 2020: Episodes 2–8 released for a limited time.

• • Later Streaming Periods:**
• 2022 (40th anniversary): May 18 – July 25
• 2023: July 6 – August 31
• 2025: May 15 – July 11 (planned)
• From June 28: All 8 episodes streamed together until July 11

• April 19, 2021: Free streaming of all episodes began on YouTube channel "AnimeLog".

A stage play adaptation of Don Dracula, based on Osamu Tezuka's manga, was performed from April 9 to April 14, 2015, at AiiA 2.5 Theater Tokyo. Written and directed by Koji Tokuo, the production was a slapstick comedy centering on the Dracula family living in modern-day Tokyo after relocating from Transylvania.

The lead role of Don Dracula was portrayed by Kenchi Tachibana of EXILE. The main cast included:^[25]

• Lucy: Natsuki Harada
• Morris: Masakatsu Nemoto
• Nobuhiko: Yuta Yada
• Kakeru: Shintaro Anzai
• Chocola (Don Dracula's daughter): Airi Kanda
• Senne: Risa Ai
• Bronda: Atsuko Hirata
• Igor: Yoshihiro Nozoe
• Professor Helsing: Tetsuhiro Ikeda

Additional cast members included Wakato Kanematsu, Hideki Sakaki, Tetsuro Kadono, Kanami Tagawa, Momoka Kodama, and Shioki Nakagawa.^[26]

Kenchi Tachibana notably immersed himself in the role, incorporating contemporary dance into his performance. He also wore red contact lenses and a red cape, aiming to modernize the traditional image of Dracula. The production maintained an official Twitter account to provide updates and engage with fans.^[25][26]

• An anime television series of Don Dracula was commissioned in 1982 by Tezuka Productions, directed by Masamune Ochiai, with the voices of Kenji Utsumi as Don Dracula and Saeko Shimazu (best known as Urusei Yatsura's Shinobu Miyake) as Chocola. The series debuted in April 1982, but only eight episodes were produced, and only four of those eight episodes made it to air, due to the bankruptcy of the anime's sponsoring company. The four "lost" episodes were later seen when the anime was dubbed for airing in other territories, but remained unavailable in Japan until the series was released on DVD.
• Don Dracula appears like a servant of Sharaku in Marine Express, and his daughter Chocola also appears in the role of Milly, the cyborg daughter of Duke Red.
• Don Dracula appears as a hospital director in the manga episode "Like B.J." of Black Jack.
• Don Dracula appears in the 2004 Game Boy Advance game, Astro Boy: Omega Factor, in the same role he had in Marine Express.
• A more human-looking version of Don Dracula is used as a principal in the Black Jack anime television series, episode 57: "Pinoko's Exam Diary".

• Osamu Tezuka
• List of Osamu Tezuka manga
• List of Osamu Tezuka anime
• Osamu Tezuka's Star System

• "Don Dracula" manga page at TezukaOsamu@World
• "Don Dracula" manga publications page at TezukaOsamu@World
• "Don Dracula" anime page at TezukaOsamu@World
• Don Dracula (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia

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