Little Wansa

Summary

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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.

Wansa-kun
Wansa and his friends (Wansa is second to the left).
ワンサくん (Little Wansa)
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	Kansai Telecasting Corporation
Original run	2 April 1973 – 24 September 1973
Episodes	26

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 Lady and the Tramp in America.

The anime series lasted 26 episodes. The first 21 episodes were very 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]

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