Little Wansa - Wikipedia

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ワンサくん (Little Wansa)
Wansa-kun
Wansa and his friends (Wansa is second to the left).
Genre	Comedy, drama
Manga
Written by	Osamu Tezuka
Published by	Mushi Production Commercial Firm
Magazine	Tezuka Magazine Leo
Original run	October 1971 – February 1972
Volumes	1
Anime television series
Directed by	Eiichi Yamamoto
Produced by	Yoshinobu Nishizaki
Written by	Keisuke Fujikawa Eiichi Yamamoto
Music by	Hiroshi Miyagawa
Studio	Zuiyo Eizo Mushi Productions
Original network	FNS (KTV)
Original run	2 April 1973 – 24 September 1973
Episodes	26

Little Wansa (ワンサくん, Wansa-kun) is a mascot for Sanwa Bank designed by Osamu Tezuka. It was later turned into a manga series by Tezuka and an anime series from 1973.

The hero of Wansa-kun was Wansa, a puppy who is sold for a pittance, then escapes, and spends much of the rest of the series looking for his mother. Tezuka never completed the manga version of the series.

In 1973 an animated series based on the manga was made, produced by Yoshinobu Nishizaki and broadcast by Kansai Telecasting Corporation. As with the earlier Triton of the Sea, Tezuka had little-to-no involvement in this series and Wansa-kun ultimately ended up being the last series produced by the original Mushi Production before its bankruptcy. The manga and the series was inspired by Walt Disney's film Lady and the Tramp in America.

The anime series lasted 26 episodes. The first 21 episodes were comedic in nature, but the final five episodes took a more dramatic turn, when Wansa began his search for his mother. Unlike the manga version, which was never completed, he succeeded in the final episode of the anime series.

After the series finished production, Nishizaki and many of his production team on this series went to work on Space Battleship Yamato.

In 2016 between 18th till 28 August Osamu Tezuka's "Little Wansa" stage play adaptation was announced.^[1]

Cast

[edit]

Noriko Ohara as Wansa
Ichirô Nagai as Megane
Jouji Yanami as Lupin
Kaneta Kimotsuki as Gamble
Kei Tomiyama as Kuma
Masako Nozawa as Kouta

References

[edit]

^ Inc, Natasha. "手塚治虫原作のキッズミュージカル「ワンサくん」ビジュアル＆キャスト解禁". コミックナタリー. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)

External links

[edit]

Little Wansa (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia

Osamu Tezuka

Manga
1940s	Diary of Ma-chan (1946) Shin Takarajima (1947) Lost World (1948) Angel Gunfighter (1949) Metropolis (1949)
1950s	Faust (1950) Kimba the White Lion (1950–1954) Nextworld (1951) Age of Adventure (1951–1953) Ambassador Atom (1951–1952) The Fossil Island (1951) The Adventure of Rock (1952–1954) Astro Boy (1952–1968) Crime and Punishment (1953) Princess Knight (1953–1956) Chief Detective Kenichi (1954–1956) The Devil of the Earth (1954) Lion Books (1956–1957) Biiko-chan (1957) The Curtain is Still Blue Tonight (1958) The Film Lives On (1958–1959) Peacock Shell (1958) The Twin Knights (1958) Dr. Thrill (1959) The Merchant of Venice (1959) Song of the White Peacock (1959)
1960s	Angel's Hill (1960–1961) Captain Ken (1960–1961) Brave Dan (1962) Big X (1963–1966) Princess Knight (1963–1966) The Amazing 3 (1965–1966) Ambassador Magma (1965–1967) The Vampires (1966–1967) Dororo (1967–1969) Gum Gum Punch (1967–1969) Phoenix (1967–1988) Princess Knight (1967–1968) Activist Student (1968) Grand Dolls (1968) Swallowing the Earth (1968–1969) The Crater (1969–1970) Triton of the Sea (1969–1971)
1970s	Alabaster (1970–1971) Apollo's Song (1970) Bomba! (1970) The Book of Human Insects (1970–1971) Marvelous Melmo (1970–1972) Ode to Kirihito (1970–1971) Birdman Anthology (1971–1975) Lion Books II (1971–1973) Little Wansa (1971–1972) Serenade of a Pig's Navel (1971) Ayako (1972–1973) Buddha (1972–1983) Lay of the Rhine (1972) Lord Iechika Mogami (1972) The Moon and Wolves (1972) Old Folk's Home (1972) Black Jack (1973–1983) Microid S (1973) The Record of Peter Kürten (1973) Sensual Nights (1973) Son of Godfather (1973) The Three-Eyed One (1974–1978) Boy Detective Zumbera (1975) Rainbow Prelude (1975) MW (1976–1978) Unico (1976–1979) Don Dracula (1979) Insect Collector (1979) Insect Collector – The Butterfly Road Smells of Death (1979) The Thief Akikazu Inoue (1979)
1980s	Hidamari no Ki (1981–1986) Rainbow Parakeet (1981–1983) Spaceship Ringel Rock (1982) Suspicion (1982) Volcanic Eruption (1982) Message to Adolf (1983–1985) Peace Concert (1984) Duke Goblin (1985–1986) Gringo (1987–1989) Ludwig B (1987–1989)

Anime
1960s	Alakazam the Great (1960) Astro Boy (1963–1966) Big X (1964–1965) The Amazing 3 (1965–1966) Kimba the White Lion (1965–2009) Leo the Lion (1966–1967) Gokū no Daibōken (1967) Princess Knight (1967–1999) Dororo (1969) A Thousand and One Nights (1969)
1970s	Cleopatra (1970) Marvelous Melmo (1971–1972) Triton of the Sea (1972–1979) Belladonna of Sadness (1973) Little Wansa (1973) Microid S (1973) Jetter Mars (1977) Undersea Super Train: Marine Express (1979) Unico (1979–1983)
1980s	Astro Boy (1980–1981) Fumoon (1980) Phoenix 2772 (1980) Don Dracula (1982) The Green Cat (1983) Bagi, the Monster of Mighty Nature (1984) Lunn Flies into the Wind (1985) The Three-Eyed One (1985–1991) Phoenix (1986–2004) Yamataro Comes Back (1986) Blue Blink (1989–1990) The New Adventures of Kimba The White Lion (1989–1990) Rain Boy (1989)
1990s	Adachi-ga Hara (1991) Akuemon (1993) Ambassador Magma (1993) Black Jack (1993–2011) In the Beginning: The Bible Stories (1997) Jungle Emperor Leo (1997)
2000s	Hidamari no Ki (2000) Metropolis (2001) Astro Boy (2003–2004) Phoenix (2004) Astro Boy (2009) Ravex in Tezuka World (2009)
2010s	Buddha (2011–2014) Dororo (2019)
2020s	Phoenix: Eden17 (2023)

Characters
Astro Boy Black Jack Hosuke Sharaku Rock Robita List of Astro Boy characters

Related
Animerama Galaxy Boy Troop Mushi Production Star System Tezuka Award Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Tezuka Productions The Osamu Tezuka Story: A Life in Manga and Anime Tokiwa-sō

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