Don Dracula - the 1982 anime and manga series

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 that aired from April 5 to April 26, 1982

History

After living in Transylvania for several years, Count Dracula moved to Japan. (The English summary on the first page of Volume 1 of the Complete Works Edition says that a merchant firm bought Dracula's castle and moved it to Tokyo without knowing it was inhabited.) In Tokyo's Nerima district, he and his daughter, Chocola and faithful servant Igor continue to live in the castle.

While Chocola attends evening classes at Matsutani Junior High School, Dracula desperately desires to drink the blood of beautiful virgin women; an appropriate meal for a vampire of his size. However, every night that Dracula goes out in search of prey he finds himself embroiled in some sort of ailment that leads him to cause various problems for the local residents. With no one in Japan who believes in vampires, her very presence causes problems among the people in the city.

The farcical comedy of the proud vampire adapting to life in Japan is compounded by Professor Hellsing, Count Dracula's nemesis for the past decade. He came to Japan to exterminate Dracula, but he has the tragic defect of suffering from hemorrhoids. Additionally, Dracula is also chased by Blonda, the first woman Dracula was able to drink blood from when he arrived in Japan. Since Blonda has a face that only a mother could love, Dracula wants to get as far away from her as possible.

Simultaneously published in the same Black Jack magazine, Tezuka commented that creating the poor vampire's antics was a lot of fun.

Characters

Don Dracula

The legendary vampire who finds himself having difficulty living in Japan than in Transylvania. He spends his days sleeping in his coffin in the basement of his castle and his nights wandering the streets of Shinjuku and Shibuya. It is weakened by water (in almost all forms) and anything in the shape of a cross. It can be destroyed with a stake in the chest. The sunlight will turn it to dust, but Igor or Chocola will usually vacuum it up and then replenish it with instant ramen with a magical spell that includes a cup of blood plus the contents of the vacuum cleaner.

Chocolat (チ ョ コ ラ Chokora, Chocolate)

Dracula's daughter who is currently attending evening classes at Tokyo's Matsutachi Junior High School. Being half vampire and half werewolf, Chocola can survive perfectly well in water, but will still turn to dust when exposed to sunlight. It can eat normal human food, but prefers human blood. Unlike her father, she is willing to bite both men and women but has accepted that her classmates are forbidden. He is a member of the school's SF club.

Nobuhiko bayashi

Chocola's classmate at Matsutani Junior High and a member of the school's SF club. He believes in aliens and UFOs, but not in old school creatures like vampires or werewolves. In the second volume, he is forced to go to a day school due to his father's work, but occasionally visits Matsutachi.

Prof. Van Helsing

Dracula's enemy for the past 10 years who is determined to eradicate all vampires on Earth. Unfortunately, he suffers from a severe case of hemorrhoids. He follows Dracula to Tokyo where he finds work as a teacher at Matsutani Junior High. However, after trying to make some extra cash by selling Dracula's "cunning pencils" (hollow pencils with a lens on one end and the test answers on a rolled sheet stuck inside) he is captured and fired. He never actually captures a vampire during the series. It uses the same design as the Dr. Fooler character from Astro Boy.

Carmilla

A female werewolf 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 on killing humans outright. It appears only in one chapter.

Igor

The servant of Dracula and Chocola who is actually quite kindhearted despite his proud appearance. He spends most of his time driving the family's horse-drawn carriage or vacuuming someone's ashes. His main weakness is being exposed to naked women.

Blonde Gray

An ugly woman who was the first person Dracula sucked blood from in Japan. Suffer from extremely high blood pressure. He was originally married to Dorian Gray when they both lived in Prague. As a student, Dorian made a deal with the devil to be successful, which led him to marry the (then) beautiful blonde. But he eventually got violent and after three years he was dragged into a frame. The blonde left him at this point and moved to Japan where she became a hostess in a bar and started indulging too much on ramen.

Police Inspector Murai

An inept detective armed with a gun who looks like a cross between Lupin's Inspector Zenigata and Gegege no Ge Kitaro's Nezumi Otoko. He tends to randomly shoot his gun into the air when excited.

Technical data and credits

Manga
Author Osamu Tezuka
Editor akita shoten
Magazine Weekly Shōnen Champion
Target shonen
1 edition May 28 - December 30, 1979
Tankōbon 3 (complete)
Publisher it. Kappa Edizioni - Ronin Manga
Series 1st ed. it. Manga Nostalgia
1st edition it. April 16 - June 30, 2011
Periodicity it. monthly
Volumes it. 3 (complete)
Texts it. Emile Martini

Anime TV series
Regia Masamune Ochiai
Composition series Takao koyama
Artistic Dir Tadami Shimokawa
Studio Tezuka Productions
Network TV Tokyo
1st TV April 5 - 26, 1982
Episodes 8 (complete)
Relationship 4:3
Duration ep. 24 min
It network. Local televisions
Episodes it. 8 (complete)
Duration ep. it. 24 mins
Double studio it. Cooperative Rinascita Cinematografica