Don Dracula
Don Dracula is a comedy horror manga by Osamu Tezuka that began and ended its run in 1979. The series depicts the constant misadventures of Count Dracula, who moves to Tokyo along with his daughter Chocola and his faithful servant Igor. Every night Dracula goes after beautiful young women to suck their blood, but his plans are always undermined by one reason or other. To make things even worse, Dracula has to deal with two undesired stalkers: Professor Helsing, his long-time nemesis who follows Dracula in Japan and tries to kill him and Chocola whenever he can, and Blonda, an overweight and ugly woman who got obsessed with Dracula as she was the first woman that he bit after his arrival in Japan.
There was also an anime series that was produced in 1982 and was scheduled to feature 26 episodes, but sadly due of the bankruptcy of the company that was sponsoring the anime, the studio was only able to finish 8 episodes, with only four being aired in Japan. The missing episodes were broadcasted in other countries for unknown reasons, and remained unavaliable in their home land until the release of the complete series in DVD.
Despite the original series' extremely short run and the sad incident with the anime, Dracula and Chocola remain among Tezuka's most popular characters, and can be seen in his other works, such as Marine Express and Black Jack. Dracula and Chocola even made an appearance in the Game Boy Advance game Astro Boy Omega Factor.
- Abhorrent Admirer: Blonda.
- Bumbling Dad
- The Chew Toy: Pretty much the entire premise of the series.
- Cowboy Cop: Inspector Murai seems to be a parody of this.
- Cute Monster Girl: Chocola.
- Death Is Cheap: Dracula and Chocola are turned into dust several times, but are returned to normal through special methods.
- Fish People: One story had Dracula and Chocola meeting a group of stray gill men from South Asia who were forced to leave the river where they originally lived because it became polluted. As expected in a work of Osamu Tezuka, that story featured many elements of Green Aesop.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Slightly inverted. Dracula and Chocola do pursue humans for blood, but they aren't really malicious vampires and do that more for instinct. This is especically played with Chocola, who is friendlier than her father.
- The Igor: The Igor of this series actually subverts this trope, as he is a Hypercompetent Sidekick and tends to be quite polite and sympathetic.
- Kenji Utsumi: Dracula's seiyuu in the anime.
- Missing Episode: The aforementioned four episodes that weren't exhibited in Japan until the series was released in DVD.
- Papa Wolf: And how. Dracula really loves his daughter to the point that he puts himself in danger sometimes.
- Reused Character Design: Professor Helsing is played by Dr. Fooler, and other Tezuka characters can be seen in small appearances in some stories.
- Stalker with a Crush: Blonda.
- Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Professor Helsing and Inspector Murai, though the latter isn't really after Count Dracula and just tends to bump with the vampire occasionally.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Chocola in the anime.