SOS Enchakamaru (ＳＯＳエンチャカ丸 ) is a 1969 gag manga by Fujio Akatsuka and Fujio Pro, serialized in Shogakukan's Elementary School 4th Grade magazine.
Overview[]
Two young tanuki boys named Kin-chan and Pon-chan take a ride on the eponymous ship, with the quest to find treasure on a mysterious island. Along the way, they get entangled into various chaotic happenings and are accompanied in these by the lion man Captain Dion and the rest of the Enchakamaru's anthropomorphic animal crew.
Initially, keeping true to the "Manga Novel" part of its billing, SOS Enchakamaru was not done as a traditional gag manga for its first two chapters but as light novel-type installments with a picture story feeling. For the third through final chapters, however, this format was abandoned as it fell more in line with other manga put out by Fujio Pro.
Before this series, the picture story format had only previously been utilized for two unreprinted Boys' Life chapters of Osomatsu-kun, which had been handled by Kunio Nagatani. Akatsuka himself had only been responsible for the art of the first Enchakamaru chapter, entrusting it to Nagatani and other assistants after that point. There are theories that as with The Numbness of Scatan and No-Good Father, Akatsuka may have only come up with the initial concept and writing but left it to another to fully develop, or that he was busy and left any detailed work (which he would have been too occupied with other serializations for) to his assistants.
The final chapter of the serialization ends in the Enchakamaru returning to port and being glimpsed by the cast of Extraordinary Ataro, as a "baton pass" indication that a parallel run of that series would start in the next issue (October 1969), making way for Ataro to get more tie-ins to advertise its then-recent anime adaptation.
As the work is one of many by Akatsuka that was left uncollected in reprints and was even skipped out in the 2002 DVD-ROM set, there is wondering and doubt if it may ever come to be unearthed without edits; Most egregiously, the cannibals of Gum Island (lead by their King Harris) are drawn to be in stereotypical blackface designs.
Characters[]
In addition to this cast, one of the sailors of the Enchakamaru can be seen to be inspired by the design of Kemunpas from Ataro, bearing a large caterpillar face similar to his.
Kin-chan[]
Our protagonist, a cheerful and adventure-seeking tanuki boy always seen in his plaid overall shorts and cap.
Pon-chan[]
Kin-chan's friend, who is differentiated from him by sporting black hair instead of a shaved crew-cut.
Captain Dion[]
A lion man always in his captain uniform. He serves as a mentor figure to the two boys.
Nikuton[]
The pig chef of the ship, whose punny name comes from the words for "meat" and "pig".
Hindbat[]
The horse of the ship.
Don Don[]
A strange man with a wide, frog-esque face.
King Harris[]
The king of the cannibal race on Gum Island. His name and that of his island derive from a popular brand of gum in Japan, Harris Gum.
Serialization[]
- 4th Grade: April to September 1969