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Ranma 1/2 vs Obocchama-kun - Why Was the Ranma Anime Cancelled?

by Harley Acres



In 1989 two anime went head-to-head in the Saturday ratings battles of Japanese television and there could be only one winner. On Fuji TV Ranma 1/2 aired while across the dial on TV Asahi Obocchama-kun was dominating the airwaves. Add in the non-anime yet very popular Quiz Derby on TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting Station) and there was a three-way ratings battle that would shape the landscape of the late 1980s.



Ranma 1/2 was the newest anime based on Rumiko Takahashi’s then two-year old series. Takahashi had already had two massive hit anime based on her work- Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku. Factoring in the late 1980s original video animation boom to include short stories such as Laughing Target and Fire Tripper, plus Mermaid Forest and Takahashi had a proven track record of massive anime success after a decade in the industry.

Obocchama-kun was Yoshinori Kobayashi’s first foray into anime. The original manga, which won the Shogakukan Manga Award in 1988 would run from 1986-1994 in CoroCoro Comic. [1] The story dealt with the diminutive ultra-wealthy rich boy named Gobo Chama. The manga is filled with scatological humor alongside obscene wealth presented in a similar manner to the Mendo family in Urusei Yatsura. However, unlike the suave Mendo, the main character of Obocchama-kun is a weak, stocky child characterized by his selfishness and odd manner of speaking. Despite being marketed towards children the anime ran afoul of parents’ groups due to its toilet humor and frequent flashes of Gobo’s uncensored private parts. [2] Because of this it has been difficult to rebroadcast some episodes on television in Japan due to today’s more conservative standards.

Obocchama-kun premiered on January 14, 1989 with Ranma 1/2 coming to air on April 15th a few months later. Quiz Derby was the standard bearer for the time slot, having been on the air since 1976. Kobayashi would claim that Obocchama-kun dented the game show’s rating and when Ranma 1/2 came on the air it struggled against Obocchama-kun.

In his manga essay book, Gomanism Manifesto vol. 1, Kobayashi states that the ratings of Obocchama-kun were what lead to Ranma 1/2 going off the air after only 18 episodes. [3] The series was retooled as Ranma 1/2 Nettohen and, after a month off the air, was shifted to Friday nights where it found more stable ratings and continued to air until 1992.

Whether or not Obocchama-kun was the actual cause of Ranma 1/2's initial cancellation is impossible to know for sure. Quiz Derby was also a stiff ratings competitor on the TBS channel in the same time slot. Obocchama-kun’s creator, Yoshinori Kobayashi, claims Takahashi fans were livid and blamed him for Ranma 1/2’s cancellation. He says he was inundated with hate mail and states that while “Takahashi takes manga seriously, her fans are ill-natured and suffer from a mother complex.” [4]

Kobayashi goes on to state that Takahashi’s work is very maternal while his is paternal, hence his comment on the Ranma fans who attack him as what amounts to “mama’s boys”. Kobayashi states that once Takahashi saw the popularity of his series, he was invited to publish a special one-off chapter in Shonen Sunday with a cover both artists collaborated on. Years later he took satisfaction in the fact that when Obocchama-kun had this special chapter published in Shonen Sunday Ranma was shown carrying Gobo in her arms, which resulted in further hate mail being sent to him from angry Ranma fans. [5] In the issue, Shonen Sunday 1990 vol. 46, Kobayashi does thank Takahashi in the author’s comments at the end of the volume. [6]

He would later elaborate that he was sent death threats and a razor blade in the mail due to this cover as Ranma fans still held a grudge over Obocchama-kun allegedly causing the early cancellation of their favorite anime.

The Obocchama-kun television series would ultimately end in September 1992, the same month the Ranma ½ Nettohen anime would come to its conclusion as well. Takahashi would continue to publish Ranma 1/2 until 1996 with her iconic Inuyasha series to follow thereafter.

As for Kobayashi, his career path shifted towards political punditry. Outside of Obocchama-kun, Kobayashi is best known for his series on “Gomanism”, a word he coined to describe arrogant ideas that he feels compelled to share despite knowing they are controversial. In his Gomanism manga he dedicates chapters to timely events in the media such as the Iraq War, Comfort Women, Article 9 of the Japanese constitution, and the Aum Shinrikyo Cult which Kobayashi was an early critic of prior to their terrorist gas attack on the Japanese subway in 1995. His criticism of what was then seen as merely an eccentric new religious movement was a topic that was controversial enough to ultimately have him temporarily suspended from Spa Magazine, his publisher at the time. [7] Kobayashi describes himself as “conservative” and has recently suggested that Coronavirus concerns have been overblown in the Japanese media. He has allied himself with Nobukatsu Fujioka in support of historical revisionism in Japanese textbooks regarding war crimes committed during World War II, a hot button issue for many years in political circles.

The convergence of Takahashi and Kobayashi was fleeting, the ratings battle between Ranma 1/2 and Obocchama-kun has never been commented on by Takahashi, only Kobayashi has written about his negative encounters with Ranma fans. Their paths have not crossed again since those months between 1989 and 1990.





Footnotes

You can watch a video by Harley Acres via the embedded clip above which shows more artwork and footage from each of the programs mentioned here. If you are interested in other Ranma 1/2 related videos I would recommend our frequently supplemented playlist of Ranma 1/2 related content.

Cover

Rumic World
Published: December 1, 2021
Author: Harley Acres
Translated by: ---
Archived: ---
ISBN/Web Address: https://www.furinkan.com/ features/articles/versus.html
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