179 episodes in total! A treasure trove of masterpieces: 'U-Bo' / Slightly obscure F-works for toddlers (14)

I have previously written articles about slightly obscure (or quite obscure) Fujiko works, especially those aimed at toddlers. This time, I will be covering a masterpiece that, despite its high level of perfection, is almost completely unknown to the world.

The title you are curious about is “U-Bo”. Surprisingly, it was serialized weekly for three and a half years, in full color, with a total of 179 episodes, but since it has never been compiled into a book, it remains a work known only to those in the know.

One of the reasons for its low profile is that the publication medium was somewhat niche. This work was serialized from the inaugural issue in a weekly newspaper for children called “Mainichi Kodomo Shinbun”. “Mainichi Kodomo Shinbun” was published as a younger sibling version of the historic “Mainichi Shogakusei Shinbun”.

This paper was a modified tabloid size and was published every Saturday. The target readership was assumed to be from the senior year of kindergarten to about the second grade of elementary school. It seems to have been a slightly larger manuscript of two pages per spread every week.

“Mainichi Shogakusei Shinbun”—if you thought 'Oh!' when you heard that, you are a Fujiko expert. The first series that the Fujiko Fujio duo ever had was “Tenshi no Tama-chan” in the Osaka edition of this paper. It is a legendary work and medium where the two sent in manuscripts without even being asked, as a replacement because the manga that Osamu Tezuka-sensei was drawing had ended.

When “Mainichi Kodomo Shinbun” was launched, an editor (Mr. Yoshiaki Kato) who knew this historical fact thought that Fujiko-sensei would surely accept, and thus requested the manuscript from them.

Note that “Mainichi Kodomo Shinbun” ceased publication in 2000. “Mainichi Shogakusei Shinbun” is still going strong.

Let me summarize the content of this work.

The protagonist, U-Bo, is a chatty UFO-shaped creature (or robot?) that can transform and stand upright and move on a single leg with wheels. An ordinary boy, Susumu Amakawa, meets U-Bo and they end up living together.

Other characters often appear, such as Mariko Wakayama, who is in the position of Shizuka, Gonta, a bully like Gian, and Dango, who corresponds to Suneo. However, since the work is at most about 25 panels, scenes featuring characters other than Susumu and U-Bo might be few.

U-Bo uses special abilities like flying in the sky and seeing through walls, as well as mysterious gadgets taken out of his large mouth, to play with Susumu or help him. Since he seems to have a naturally clumsy personality, he makes many mistakes, which feels very much like a Fujiko character.

So, what kind of episodes unfold specifically? I hope you can feel the density of the work, which you wouldn't expect from such a short piece.

Since we are at it, let's look at the first episode in detail. This work is composed of a 3-column, 2-page spread, but if you look closely, that is only for the first episode. From the second episode onwards, it is a 4-column layout, which seems to have been changed for some reason. Therefore, this work has fewer panels than the episodes from the second one onwards.

At the beginning, the protagonist Susumu shows Mariko, Gonta, and Dango a photo of a flying saucer that he says he took while hiking. Susumu, feeling envious, stays up late trying to take a photo of a saucer himself, but is scolded by his mom, who says, 'There's no way one exists.'

As he changes into his pajamas and starts getting ready for bed, he sees a saucer flying outside the window. He hurriedly prepares his camera, but the saucer has already left.

...or so he thought, but what he took for a flying saucer was actually a saucer-shaped life form, and noticing Susumu with his camera, it"Take a picture, take a picture of me!"it says, turning back. It seems to be a saucer with a bit of a show-off personality.

This UFO-shaped life form that comes to have its picture taken on its own isU-Bo. When you pull its tail and say "shrink," it transforms into a compact, one-legged shape with wheels.

U-Bo unilaterally declares, "I like this house, I'm going to live here," and goes to sleep in Susumu's futon. It seems to have ashow-off and pushy personality.

The next morning, when Susumu tries to take his unfinished breakfast to his room, his mom senses something suspicious and stops him, saying, "You've picked up another dog or cat, haven't you?" Then, U-Bo comes down from the second floor and, completely oblivious to the atmosphere, starts munching on the food. Mom and Dad are left dumbfounded.

Then Dad starts panicking that he's going to be late for work. U-Bo then carries Dad, still in his pajamas, on its back and flies off, saying, "I'll take you." Seizing this opportunity, Susumu says,"It's convenient having U-Bo around, isn't it?"and gets his mom to agree to let U-Bo live with them.

This work is only 20 panels long. It manages to depict the initial meeting and the flow leading up to living together in the blink of an eye. In doing so, it establishes the goofy character of U-Bo, and also features all of Susumu's friends and family.

I think this is a work that shows just how much Fujiko-sensei, who is peerless when it comes to drawing short stories, values every single panel.

Let's continue and take a closer look at the second episode. The character introductions and such are finished in the first episode, and the regular story begins to unfold quickly. The theme is "cherry blossom viewing" (hanami), as it is the April issue.

Wanting to go cherry blossom viewing or stories about going to see the cherry blossoms are one of the classic themes in Fujiko's works. I haven't been able to write a feature article on it in the Fujiko F Note yet, but it's a topic I'm planning for next spring.

Susumu's family decides to go cherry blossom viewing. Hearing the word "hanami," U-Bo peers into Susumu's nose and mistakes it for "hana-kuso" (boogers), a pun on the word "hana" (nose/flower).

They take a bus to go see the mountain cherry blossoms. They immediately spread out a sheet surrounded by cherry blossoms and have a meal. While Susumu is reluctant to eat his vegetables, U-Bo says it eats anything and even starts gnawing on the plate.

Up to this point, it depicts U-Bo's ignorance of the world. In Fujiko F's works, there is often a structure where a character who comes from another world to an ordinary family invites laughter by acting in ways that deviate from common sense. This work also adopts that very structure.

In the second half, Dad forgets his camera, so U-Bo takes Susumu on its back to fly and retrieve it. Here, it is revealed that U-Bo's flight speed is fast and that it came from a distant star.

However, just because it boasted about its speed, it accidentally flies all the way to the cherry blossom trees in Washington, D.C., USA. Because of that, when it joins up with Mom and Dad later, they say, "You were late."

While also sharing the trivia that there are cherry blossoms in America, it also shows U-Bo's clumsiness and its phenomenal abilities, making it another dense work that you wouldn't believe is only 23 panels long.

Well, if I keep going through all 179 episodes at this rate, it will never end, but at the same time, I would like to consider other works as well.

With that said, I will continue to explore the charm of "U-Bo" in the next installment.