Rakugaki (ラクガキ , "Graffiti") is a monthly newspaper-serialized gag manga by Fujio Akatsuka and Fujio Pro, appearing in the Sunday edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun through 1975.
Overview[]
A small scribble boy known as Rakugaki gets up to mischief and adventures as if he were an actual person, but is reminded of his limits if water may touch him or if he gets into other dire situations.
But most of all, he'd like to know what it's like to be a person...
Though it has a similar title, this feature is to not be confused with two earlier projects: The 1965 Weekly Shonen Magazine one-shot (with the notation of らくガキ), or the 1967 COM one-shot (らくがき).
Characters[]
Rakugaki[]
A crude little scribble with the ability to hop off the wall he's drawn on, and interact among normal beings. He also has the ability to bring other scribbles to life off of their walls, but can put them back all the same. Yet at the same, other graffiti can be shown to be sentient on their own in the series, and he may interact with them as well.
He is once shown to get along with a little girl named Miyo-chan, and grows fond of a similar-looking little scribble girl only for her to wash away in the rain when she goes back to her wall.
In the end, Rakugaki wishes to be a human boy, praying to the gods to make him one after not getting respect for being graffiti and after ultimately seeing a lonely young boy wanting friends. It turns out that this boy was the very one who drew him to begin with, and Rakugaki is successfully transformed into a human by a lightning strike. The final panel has the two children running off to play together.
Serialization[]
- Yomiuri Shimbun: March 9th to December 7th, 1975
Reprints[]
- Shogakukan: Seven of the ten chapters were digitized as part of the Fujio Akatsuka Complete Works DVD-ROM set. A print-on-demand edition is also available through ComicPark.
However, other than this, there has yet to ever be a current and comprehensive reprint of this work.