Chingo Muchabei

Chingo Muchabei (珍豪ムチャ兵衛, The Extravagant Muchabei) is a historical gag manga by Kenji Morita and Genkotsu Pro.

Synopsis
Taking place during feudal Japan under Tokugawa rule, a poor ronin named Muchabei is raising a young boy named Bokemaru, who is also the heir in the Toyotomi clan, in tenement houses ironically called "Edo Mansion", located next to the Edo castle. Upon finding out about this, current shogun Iemitsu Tokugawa sends ninja Kabure-zukin out to rid of Bokemaru, in fear of being overthrown. Unfortunately, he is always thwarted by Muchabe; Doesn't help that Kabure is unintelligent and not very skilled.

Despite the time period, anarchism is very rampant in the series for gags, meaning there are modern-day items and technology in an ancient time. Examples would be characters having TV sets, Iemitsu, Hikoza and Kabure using walkie-talkies, street signs (Including Muchabei having a No U-turn sign as his emblem), Muchabei's weapon being a modern umbrella, etc. Additionally in Edo period, the currency used was gold, silver and copper coins. However in the series, the currency was yen, which wasn't created until the Meiji period.

Toyotomi side
Muchabei (ムチャ兵衛)

The main protagonist. A 30-year-old ronin who was the Toyotomi Clan's loyal retainer. After their defeat, he takes in Bokemaru and vows to protect and raise him, in hopes to revive the Toyotomi clan. He makes a living by creating umbrellas and selling them, though he does not make good profit. Even his main weapon is an umbrella instead of a sword; although in the manga, he seems to alternate between umbrella and sword. He's tough and acts very fatherly towards Bokemaru.

Bokemaru (ボケ丸)

An orphan who is the only true heir of the Toyotomi clan and grandson of Hideyoshi Toyotomi. He is not a very bright boy (Hence the "Boke-" in his name, which translates to "Fool" "Idiot"), often causing trouble for people around him and doesn't do well at school. He also isn't a great fighter, sometimes lazy, wets the bed and is prone to throwing tantrums. Despite all, he's a very sweet and naive kid. In the manga, he is shown to be a great artist.

Tokugawa side
Iemitsu Tokugawa (徳川家三)

The 3rd shogun of Japan and head of the Tokugawa clan. He is depicted with a tanuki face. He is seen as being very cowardly, weak and childish, often throwing fits when things don't go his way and being scared of Muchabei.

Hikoza Ookubo (大久保彦左)

The chief retainer of the Tokugawa clan and Iemitsu's advisor. He is more stern and can fight pretty well for his age.

Kabure-zukin (カブレ頭巾)

Known simply as "Kabure", he is a ninja who was sent to eliminate Bokemaru. He is also the leader of the "Tokugawa Ninja Corps", a group of ninjas who serve along him in his schemes. His plans always end up failing in the end, but he still tries his best. He is shown to sometimes have a soft spot.

Edo Mansion
Peanut Grannies (ピーナツばあちゃん)

Twin old women who cause mischief.

Nanta and Anata (南太、穴太)

Two men who run their own "Taxi" kago service. Nanta is the tall one and Anata is the short one.

Tomekou (トメ公)

An anime-only character who is a carpenter.

Mendou Kyuusei (面倒九斉)

The Local Fortune Teller.

Landlord (大家)

Unnamed Landlord of Edo Mansion, often seen scolding Muchabei for being behind on his rent

Minor Characters
Kayo-chan (かよちゃん)

Bokemaru's classmate and girlfriend. Iemitsu has also developed a crush on her, causing him to be jealous of Bokemaru. In the original manga, she only appeared in Bokemaru's dream in one chapter, but became a recurring character in the anime as a transfer student at Bokemaru's school.

Makarou and Westa (マカ郎、ウェス太)

One-shot characters. Two cowboys from the United States hired by the Tokugawa clan to assassinate Muchabei. Makarou is the shorter one and is very short-tempered. Westa is the slimer and more calmer one; However he only prefers to fight if the mood is set, such as turning Edo Mansion into a western saloon, Edo castle into a European-styled castle, the Tokugawa clan dressed as Native Americans, etc. In the anime, Makarou was absent and Westa was renamed to "BiriBiri Kiddo" (ビリビリキッド), a pun based off "Billy the Kid" and the Japanese onomatopoeia word "Biri Biri" (A word used for electric shocks).

Uzura (ウズラ)

One shot anime character. A kaiju-like creature from space who crashed landed onto Earth and made friends with Bokemaru. He is quite strong and can easily fight Muchabei with no fail. He started out tiny, but as he eats, he grows bigger and bigger, as well as stronger. Notably, his design looks similar to that of Q-Taro from Obake no Q-Taro (Which was another popular anime during the 60's).

Kabure's Mother

Manga
The original manga was serialized in Kodansha's "Weekly Shonen Magazine" from the 31st issue of 1967 to the 20th issue of 1968. The book was released on the comic mate label by Wakagi Shobo in 1969, and on the home comic label by Kodansha in 1976. In addition, both volumes have been converted into E-books from HEW on the Legend Comics label in 2016. Among them, the HEW version is a high-quality digital remaster scanned from the serialized manuscript, and also includes chapters that have not been in the original manga. As of April 30th, 2020, the E-books have been removed for an unknown reason.

Anime
The anime broadcasted on TBS from February 15, 1971 to March 22, 1971 with two-episodes each every Monday-Friday at 18:00-18:30 (Japan Standard Time).

This series is the last monochrome anime to air in the 20th century in Japan. It was produced in 1968, but due to networks switching to color anime, it was shelved for a long time, although afterwards TMS produced a few more black-and-white shows such as Umeboshi Denka and Kaibutsu-kun. Ultimately four years later, it was finally picked up by TBS and broadcasted on a timeslot specifically for older works.

38 years later, the entire series made a comeback airing on the Home Drama Channel in 2008.

On March 25, 2016, Bestfield released the full HD remaster of the anime (Except episode 10b, which remains unreleased) on DVD-BOX as the 52nd collection of the "Memories of Anime Library" series with TC Entertainment in charge of the sales.

Soundtrack
A soundtrack for the anime was released on December 28th, 2016, manufactured by Tokyo Movie Record. It includes all 76 background music songs and varied versions of the intro and outro theme, including karaoke, full versions, TV sized as well as pilot songs.

Currently, the soundtrack is only available on CD, but has now been removed from Amazon and other websites.

Staff
Directors -

Eiji Okabe

Hiroshi Saito

Haruo Maekawa

Riki Oishi

Tadao Nagaham

Screenplay -

Riki Matsumoto

Hideko Yoshida

Yoshiaki Yoshida

Others

Planning - Haruyuki Kawashima

Sound Director - Mitsuo Ono

Sound Effects - Yozo Kataoka

Script writers -

Aritsune Toyota (Episode 19b)

Chikara Matsumoto (15 episodes)

Hideko Yoshida (7 episodes)

Kinzo Okamoto (3 episodes)

Masahiro Yamada (Episode 13)

Masaki Tsuji (6 episodes)

Seiji Matsuoka (5 episodes)

Takashi Kusakawa (4 episodes)

Tsunehisa Ito (Episodes 4a, 6a, 8b)

Yoshiaki Yoshida (Episodes 2b, 25b)

Storyboard - Shingo Araki

Key Animation - Haruo Maekawa

Effects - Yozo Kataoka

Animation director - Daikichirou Kusube

Original drawings -

Takeo Kitahara

Sadayoshi Tominaga

Yasuhiro Yamaguchi

Keisuke Morishita

Eiichi Nakamura

Others

Photography - Tsuneo Kobayashi and Masami Morizumi

Editing - Kazuo Inoue

Animation - A Production (Currently Shin-Ei Animation)

Production - TBS, Tokyo Movie Shinsha (TMS)

Music
Opening theme: "Chingo Muchabei"

Ending theme: "Bokemaru Lullaby"

Singer - Kazuo Kumakura

Lyrics - Tokyo Movie Planning Department

Composition - Kenjiro Hirose

Arrangement - Kenjiro Hirose

Background Music - Kenjiro Hirose

Voice Cast
Isamu Tanonaka as Iemitsu

Junpei Takiguchi as Kabure-zukin

Machiko Soga as Bokemaru

Masashi Amenomori as Muchabei

Toshiya Ueda as Hikoza

Chieko Kitagawa

Gentarō Inoue

Hiroshi Ohtake

Kei Tomiyama

Koichi Chiba

Masako Nozawa as the Peanut Grannies

Minoru Yada

Ryota Ide

Ryuuji Takada

Shōzō Iizuka

Takashi Yasuda

Tetsuya Kaji

Yasuo Muramatsu

Trivia

 * Iemitsu is an actual Japanese shogun, who goes by the same name as well as the grandson of Ieyasu Tokugawa. The reason for him looking tanuki-like is because of how Ieyasu is often depicted as a tanuki due to his cunning personality, thus resulting in even his grandson as a tanuki.
 * In 1966, a pirate-themed children's quiz show called "Manga Pirate Quiz" aired, where young kids compete in teams, along with Akatsuka Fujio on "Team Osomatsu" and Kenji Morita on "Team Dameo". After Marude Dameo's serialization ended in 1968 and Chingo Muchabei began, Morita's team name was changed to "Team Muchabei".
 * Episode 5b ("Sports Day Strategy") is the only episode of Chingo Muchabei that has never been re-released, not even on streaming or the DVD box. The reason is currently unknown.

Videos