Midori-san, the woman Q-chan admires! "Mademoiselle" Edition / Fujiko Love Stories ③

Fujiko F. characters are, in fact, all prone to falling in love.
They experience a mix of joy and sorrow, repeatedly falling in love, getting rejected, having their feelings returned, or remaining in unrequited love.
Therefore, we are launching a major project to examine the love lives of F characters in love,the "Fujiko Love Stories" series!
The third installment introduces the entire series from "Mademoiselle," featuring the love-rich "Obake no Q-taro",which depicts Q-chan's faint feelings of love.series.

"Mademoiselle"January 1966 - November 1966 issues / Complete Works Vol. 10

The well-known "Obake no Q-taro" gained immense popularity through thestraightforward slapstick comedywoven by Q-taro, who knows nothing about human society. It started as a nonsense comedy.

However, as the serialization progressed and the charming ghost friends were introduced,everyone started falling in love with someone.

For example, Q-taro likes U-ko-san, and Doronpa cannot help but be interested in P-ko. Yukari-san, with whom P-ko is staying, likes Iwami-kun. In "New Obake no Q-taro," the slow-moving romance between Sho-chan's brother Shinichi and Inako is depicted, and O-jiro also falls in love...

In this article, we will introduce "Obake no Q-taro," which was serialized in the women's magazine"Mademoiselle"published by Shogakukan for women around the age of twenty, which was explicitly themed around"love."

Serialized for 11 months in "Mademoiselle," each installment is a short 4-page piece in which Q-taro harbors a faint, admiration-like love for an older woman. Rather than wanting to be treated as an equal, it feels more like a desire to becherished like a younger brother.

Q-chan's love interest is Midori Aoyama,Midori Aoyama, a woman who moved into the house of their neighbor, Mr. Kaminari. Although Doronpa is supposed to be staying at Mr. Kaminari's house, he does not appear at all in this series. It is appropriate to read this as aparallel worldindependent from the regular "Obake no Q-taro."

Since these are precious works that can only be read in the "Fujiko F. Fujio Complete Works," we will provide a complete commentary on all 11 episodes. What kind of love will Q-taro experience, and what kind of trouble will he cause? Please stay tuned.

"First Love""Mademoiselle" January 1966 issue

As the title suggests,Q-chan's "first love"is depicted.

Midori Aoyama, who moved into the neighbor Mr. Kaminari's house, comes to the Ohara house to introduce herself. Q-taro is the only one home, but because he is stuffing his cheeks with manju, he cannot greet her properly.

So, after swallowing the manju, he goes to the Kaminari house to greet Midori-san,

"Oh, what a good boy, let's be friends."

she says, patting his head. Q-chan is sent soaring with a "Yahoo!"

After that, the Ohara family returns home. Since Q-chan is staring at Midori-san's room, Sho-chan and the others realize he likes her, and in his embarrassment, he makes a face at Midori-san.

Q-taro sheds tears over his bittersweet first love.

"Unrequited Love""Mademoiselle" February 1966 issue

Midori-san comes over to borrow stamps. Q-chan tries to give her stamps from Sho-chan's collection, tries to lick the stamps for her, and even brings over a mailbox so she can post her letter quickly.

He then asks Midori-san, "Who are you sending it to? A lover?" but she brushes him off with a "Hehe, who knows."

Ah, sad unrequited love.

"Matchmaking""Mademoiselle" March 1966 issue

Q-taro heads to Kaminari-san's house. There, Kaminari-san is asking Midori-san, "Could you go take a look this coming Sunday?"

When he tells Sho-chan about this, he suspects it might be a matchmaking meeting. Q-chanimagines Midori-san in a bridal gownand thinks, "She must look beautiful."

The next day, he follows Midori-san after she disappears, and she enters a house. However, instead of a matchmaking meeting, he finds her being shown a magnificent dog that the owner of the house says won a competition.

The "going to take a look" was not a matchmaking meeting, but rathergoing to see a dog.

It was a trivial story, but the highlight is Midori-san in a bridal gown.

"Love Rival""Mademoiselle" April 1966 issue

Midori-san asks him, "I've been invited bowling, so I'd like Q-chan to come along too."

When he follows her, a man with a Suneo-like appearance namedKizaois waiting. Q-chan gets a somewhat bad impression of him. Kizao is good at bowling and hits consecutive strikes, but Q-taro interferes with him.

After bowling, Kizao offers to take Midori home in his private car, but Q-chan says,"That's fine, I have a private plane,"and flies off with Midori on his back.

"Love is Painful""Mademoiselle" May 1966 Issue

At the Ohara household, Mom has gone out, leaving Shota and Shinichi to prepare dinner. Seeing the cooking scene, where they mix up sugar and salt, Q-taro decides to try running away from home for just one day.

When he leaves the house, Midori-san calls out to him, so Q-taro says,

"Help me, Miss! If I stay home tonight, I'll be forced to eat something weird and I'll be killed!"

He says something that sounds quite bad to others. Midori-san then invites him, saying, "You should eat my cooking tonight," and Q-taro is overjoyed, shouting "Pokyo!"

However, when he returns home, Mom has come back just to prepare the meal, and Q-taro gets carried away and eats 30 bowls of rice.

He then remembers Midori-san and goes to her house, but since he is full, he cannot eat much. Truly, he is Q-taro, who prefers dumplings over flowers...

"A Strange Trip""Mademoiselle" June 1966 Issue

Accepting an invitation from Midori-san and her friends, Q-taro decides to go along on a hot spring trip to the mountains. However, when they arrive and try to take a commemorative photo, Midori's friend realizes she forgot to bring the camera film.

Q-taro flies off to find some film, but he ends up going all the way back home, eats a meal while he's there, and naturally falls asleep.

The punchline is that Q-taro never returns to the hot spring inn and instead spends the night at home.

"The Substitute Matchmaker""Mademoiselle" July 1966 Issue

Midori-san is going to have a real arranged marriage meeting. Q-taro decides that Midori-san doesn't want to do it, so he dresses as a woman and appears before the man who arrives. Not knowing what an arranged marriage meeting is, Q-taro says "Face each other, face each other..." and starts a sumo match.

Eventually, Midori-san appears, and the formal meeting begins. The man takes a liking to Midori-san and invites her for a walk alone. This man's lines are quite something.

"I've had ninety-nine arranged marriage meetings so far, but you are the best. We must have been born for each other."

Q-taro, who had been following the two of them from behind, heard this and“That’s so cheesy. Though I don’t have any teeth.” he said with a grimace.

Just then, two thugs got involved and knocked the man Midori was meeting unconscious. Q-taro, who had been hiding, defeated the thugs, but when the man woke up, he mistook Midori for the one who had defeated them. Saying, “I worry about what’s to come,” he ran away from Midori.

However, Midori-san seems prone to being liked by strange men, like Kizao and this man she was meeting.

“Love and Songs” “Mademoiselle” August 1966 issue

Folk songs are currently popular. Midori-san says she loves them too and is listening to a record. Q-taro takes out Shinichi’s guitar and decides to sing a folk song himself.

However, Q-taro’s singing voice is like noise. Hearing the song, Mom is furious,“You’ll give me Japanese encephalitis!” and when he goes to practice in the vacant lot, the cats protest fiercely.

After hearing advice on the radio that“Folk songs are meant to speak deeply to people’s hearts,” he sings to Midori-san, and it is very well received.

It is a very sweet story where his love for Midori overcomes his tone-deafness.

“Love and Sorrow” “Mademoiselle” September 1966 issue

A man comes to visit Midori-san. Q-taro, who was house-sitting, answers the door and says he is her younger brother. The man imagines Midori’s face based on Q-taro’s and leaves. This man wasa talent scout from a film company.

Kaminari-san gets angry at Q-taro, saying, “You’ve ruined Midori-san’s chance to become an actress,” and lectures him, saying, “You are too familiar with Midori, andshe is troubled by it.”

Thinking that being a ghost’s younger brother is a nuisance, Q-taro decides to run away from home. However, with nowhere to go, he is sleeping on the street when Midori-san comes looking for him.

“You don’t need to worry about that. I’m happier having a kind younger brother like Q-taro than becoming a star.”

These are the words that move Q-taro.

In this work, it is revealed that Q-taro wanted to be Midori’s younger brother.

"Present""Mademoiselle" October 1966 Issue

Hearing that it is Midori-san's birthday, Q-chan asks his mom what he should give her as a gift. She advises him to just ask her about it subtly.

Midori-san is soothing a neighbor's baby and mutters, "I want a baby like this." to herself.

Q-chan tries to get a baby from people passing by on the street and even tries to buy one at a department store, but naturally, he cannot obtain one.

As a last resort, Q-chan does a baby cosplay and presents himself to Midori-san as a gift. He turned out to be a baby who eats a lot.

"Driving Lessons""Mademoiselle" November 1966 Issue

Midori-san starts attending a driving school. Q-chan tries to learn along with her, but is rejected because "ghosts aren't allowed." Q-chan gets angry, saying, "Don't be racist."

The driving instructor is overly familiar with Midori-san and keeps touching her. Q-chan, having turned invisible and climbed into the training car, hits the instructor to stop him every time he tries to touch Midori-san.

Midori is a pretty bad driver, but she continues to attend the driving school. Q-chan also ends up going every day to stop the instructor from touching her.

And with that, Oba-Q in "Mademoiselle" comes to an end. It was a somewhat abrupt final episode, but since the Oba-Q series itself was basically scheduled to end all its serializations within 1966, it couldn't be helped.

As I wrote at the beginning, this work has a worldview like a parallel world that is different from the regular series. It is a very cute work that depicts the faint love story of Q-taro, who admires the ideal woman, Midori.

I think most people don't know about this work, but if you are interested, please read it in the Complete Collection!!

I also do plenty of analysis on "Oba-Q".