Don Dracula (Weekly Shonen Champion)
Weekly Shonen Champion
May 28, 1979
When the popular feature Black Jack (1973-83) came to the end of its original run in September 1978 in Akita Shoten’s popular Weekly Shonen Champion, Osamu Tezuka decided to follow it with something a little different.
Although slightly similar in its dark tone to Black Jack (1973-83), there is no mistaking Don Dracula (1979) for anything but a slapstick comedy. It began its weekly run on May 28 and concluded on December 10, 1979 – skipping only the September 24 and October 22, 1979 issues.
In addition to the 25 weekly chapters serialized over the course of its run, there is also one two-part story (‘Dracula vs. Camilla’ published July 9 and 16, 1979) – bringing the grand total to 26 chapters.
It is also worth noting that most modern editions of Don Dracula (1979) are based on the Osamu Tezuka Complete Manga Works editions (MT-248 | MT-249 | MT-250) that Tezuka himself edited in 1982. As such, these editions will list the chapters in Tezuka’s preferred order, which differs slightly from the strictly chronological order.
Publication Information and Chapter Summaries
Dracula’s Arrival (ドラキュラ登場)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/05/28
The infamous Count Dracula has moved his entire estate (castle and all) from the mists of Tranylvania to the bright lights of Tokyo, Japan. Having promised his daughter Chocola a night out on the town, he orders his manservant Igor to hitch up the horses and they head off to Shibuya, thirsting for the blood of virgins. They soon spot a likely victim, but when she is the victim of a hit-and-run, Chocola follows the car and finds out a careless young playboy was behind the wheel. She then gives him the scare of his life.
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Gratin as “Igor”
- Osamu Tezuka as “a passer-by”
Dracula, Again (またもやドラキュラ)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/06/04
Chocola joins the Matsutani Junior High School Science Fiction club and the group decides to pool their money to buy an expensive life-sized Sci-Fi plastic model. After collecting the ¥90,000 needed, Chocola and Club President Nobuhiko (with whom Chocola is smitten) set out to make the purchase. Unfortunately, when the company advertising the model turns out to be a fraud, the group is left with no money and no model… until Count Dracula decides to sort the matter out himself.
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Gratin as “Igor”
Dracula, After All (やっぱりドラキュラ)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/06/11
Looking for a place to regularly hold their meetings, the Sci-Fi Club is offered the free use of an old house that used to be a cram school. However, the house turns out to be haunted by the vengeful spirits of the dead students and Club President Nobuhiko is seriously injured in a supernatural accident. Worried that Chocola may also be hurt by the spirits, Dracula heads over for a little exorcism of his own.
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Gratin as “Igor”
- Inspector Tawashi as “the police detective”
Dracula Tanker (ドラキュラ・タンカー)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/06/18
Count Dracula graciously receives a letter of invitation to a dinner party being hosted by Prime Minister Ohira Masayoshi. Graciously accepting, he arrives at the Official Residence, only to find out he has received the invitation by mistake – having been mistaken as an important representative from an Arabian oil-producing country. Humiliated and upset, Dracula hijacks an oil tanker in a bid to force the Prime Minister to apologize to him.
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Gratin as “Igor”
Well, I’m Dracula (なんちゅうかドラキュラ)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/06/25
Dracula‘s arch-nemesis, the vampire-hunting Professor Hellsing has once again tracked down his foe. He takes a teaching position at Matsutani Junior High School and ends up being Chocola‘s teacher – hoping for the perfect opportunity to drive a wooden stake into the Count’s heart. However, the poor professor suffers from chronic hemorrhoids and, while snooping around Dracula‘s castle, has an attack. In a panic, he can’t find a bathroom anywhere, but he does spot the Count’s unattended casket…
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Dr. Fooler as “Professor Hellsing”
Dracula, One More Time (もうひとつドラキュラ)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/07/02
While watching late-night television, Count Dracula stumbles upon a program featuring a salacious actress, Yara Cenne. Instantly smitten, he rushes down to the T.V. station, but hilarity ensues as he is taken for an extra and shuffled into the filming of a period drama before ending up as part of the panel in a round-table discussion on constipation.
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Buku Bukk as “the villain in the period drama”
- Ramune as “Security Guard No. 1”
- Kalpis as “Security Guard No. 2”
- Mokusan as “Stagehand A”
- Norse Necktall as “Stagehand B”
Dracula vs. Camilla (ドラキュラＶＳカーミラ)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/07/09 | 1979/07/16
Chocola is suddenly approached by a woman who introduces herself as a magazine photographer and offers her a chance to do some modeling. Chocola is flattered and accepts the invitation, but after arriving on the small island of Izu, she discovers that several young people have recently died in what looks like a vampire attack. Of course the photographer turns out to be Camilla, another vampire who also just happens to be Count Dracula‘s ex-wife and Chocola‘s mother. The Count soon shows up and Chocola is caught in the middle.
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
Dracula Meets the Fish-Men (もう一度ドラキュラ)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/07/23
In another hair-brained scheme to kill Count Dracula, Professor Hellsing creates several beautiful female-looking puppets and fills them with garlic gas. However, when the puppets take on a life of their own, Dracula comes face to face with a race of Fish-Men from South-East Asia who have fled the sea and were attempting to disguised themselves on land.
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Gratin as “Igor”
- Inspector Murai as “Police Inspector Murai”
- Dr. Fooler as “Professor Hellsing”
Dracula, Once Again (ドラキュラ半魚人にあう)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/07/30
When the daughter of the French Ambassador to Japan is kidnapped, Count Dracula becomes a prime suspect. So, in an effort to clear his own name, Dracula decides to set off on his own to find her. He soon ends up at a local disco, and, after being forced into it, discovers his hidden talent for dancing. Dracula is an instant hit with the young disco patrons, and he discovers it’s a great place to find the blood of virgins.
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Gratin as “Igor”
- Inspector Murai as “Police Inspector Murai”
Blonda, My Love (いとしのブロンダ)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/08/06
One day a strange package arrives at the castle – an eerie-looking portrait of some kind, from an unknown sender. After hanging up the painting, they discover that the figure in the portrait comes alive every night and wanders aimlessly around the castle. The man in the picture reveals that he is Dorian Gray and has been trapped in the painting by a demon’s curse. Only his true love, the lovely and beautiful Blonda can break the spell. Of course a Blonda lives just next door… could the two possibly be one and the same?
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Gratin as “Igor”
It Reminds Me of Dracula (そういえばドラキュラ)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/08/13
The Count inadvertently joins the Dracula Lovers’ Fan Club and ends up touring the limestone caves of Okutama – reportedly the home of a vampire. Of course the group loses it’s way deep underground and its up to Count Dracula to save the day… but not before dinner.
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Gratin as “Igor”
Dracula, By All Means (どうしてもドラキュラ)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/08/20
Count Dracula hears that Chocola will have a test at school the next day. Not wanting to be shown up by his rival, Professor Hellsing, Dracula designs a special pencil with a tiny piece of paper inside for his daughter to cheat. Of course, Chocola is an honour-role student and doesn’t use it, but Professor Hellsing finds it anyway. Although Chocola expects him to be angry, instead he surprisingly suggests to Dracula that the pair market the trick pencil and make a killer profit off it.
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Gratin as “Igor”
- Dr. Fooler as “Professor Hellsing”
Dracula Lives by Night (ドラキュラは夜にかぎる)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/08/27
Chocola is distraught when the boy she’s got a crush on, Nobuhiko, the President of the Sci-Fi Club, is transferred to a daytime school. Although she doesn’t want to be separated from him, as a vampire, her body will turn to dust if exposed to sunlight. So Chocola begins a desperate effort to slowly train her body not to be affected by the sun…
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Gratin as “Igor”
- Butaru Makeru as “Pharmacist A”
- Norse Necktall as “Pharmacist B”
- Duralumin as “the Cult Leader”
Almost Dracula (あわやドラキュラ)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/09/03
While searching high and low for an ancestral cloak that has been handed down from generation to generation, Count Dracula stumbles across an old coffin in storage. Inside the coffin, he finds one of his ancestors is buried in sand and decides to resurrect him using an arcane secret method. Then it’s a case of “be careful what you wish for” as the newly resurrected vampire turns out to be the vicious killer known as “The Impaler” and Dracula has to figure out a way to get him back in his coffin.
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Gratin as “Igor”
Dracula’s Transformation (ドラキュラその変身)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/09/10
Michio is the classic “boy who cried wolf”. However, after he witnesses Chocola transforming herself into a bat he tells his parents but, fed up with his constant lying, they don’t believe him. Desperate to prove he’s telling the truth he tracks down Chocola and tells her that if she proves he was telling the truth, he will never tell another lie again.
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Gratin as “Igor”
- Dororo as “Michio”
- Pinoko as “the girl in the bookstore”
- Tezuka Osamu as “a passenger on the train”
Another Dracula (もうひとりのドラキュラ)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/09/17
When Comatine, a pretty young gymnast from Dracula‘s home-country of Romania, arrives in Japan, he hurries off to suck her blood. However, when he arrives in her bedroom he discovers he’s been beaten to the punch by another vampire and he leaves in frustration. The next day Comatine falls during her parallel bars routine and is seriously injured. She needs a large blood transfusion, but her blood type is very rare. Luckily, Dracula is on the case.
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Gratin as “Igor”
- Dr. Fooler as “Professor Hellsing”
Dracula in the Rain (雨の中のドラキュラ)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/10/01
One day, a fortune-teller on the street gives Count Dracula an ominous prophecy – he will soon have an encounter with a force of nature, and if he doesn’t lose his life, he will lose something even more precious. In a panic, Dracula believes that his beloved daughter, Chocola is the only thing more precious to him than his own life, so he confines her to the castle. However, Chocola, who doesn’t believe in fortune-telling, sneaks out without a care in the world. Meanwhile, a terrible typhoon is getting closer and closer to Japan…
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Gratin as “Igor”
Dracula, Barely (かろうじてドラキュラ)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/10/08
While travelling through a tunnel in their horse-and-carriage, Count Dracula and his daughter Chocola are involved in a major car accident. Taking refuge from the ensuing blaze in a nearby emergency shelter, the pair discover they are not alone. There they meet a family who have left home in an attempt to die together, as well as a pair of notorious gangsters who have robbed and murdered a yakuza boss and are on the run.
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Gratin as “Igor”
- Acetylene Lamp as “Robber No. 1”
- Heck Ben as “Robber No. 2”
Now It’s Dracula, for Some Reason (なぜか今ドラキュラ)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/10/15
When a Chinese cargo plan crash lands near Count Dracula‘s estate, the tiger and panda cubs being transported escape. Although the search party is trying to capture the panda cubs alive, they plan to shoot the dangerous tiger on sight. Although Chocola finds them first and hides them in the castle, the searchers keep coming closer and closer…
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Gratin as “Igor”
Dracula Returns (ドラキュラ帰る)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/10/29
While making another call on one of his “regular victims”, Dracula stumbles across the woman’s brother attempting suicide. Dracula quickly stops him and the man tells him that he lives alone with his sister and that he is so tired of studying for his university entrance exams that he no longer wants to live. In an attempt to encourage him, Dracula offers to tutor him, even though the Count likes studying even less than he does.
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
Dracula in Desperation (くるしまぎれのドラキュラ)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/11/05
With Dracula sick in bed with a cold, Chocola searches the Tokyo nightlife looking for the blood of a virgin for her sick father. Unfortunately she only finds a bunch of juvenile delinquents instead of the beautiful young woman she is searching for. In desperation, Chocola invites one of her teachers, an old maid who has a reputation at school for being tough on students, to her house to meet her father…
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Gratin as “Igor”
The Wrong Dracula (ドラキュラちがい)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/11/12
After his girlfriend falls victim to a vampire, a young man becomes a vampire hunter and seeks his revenge. Hearing about recent vampire sightings in Tokyo, he comes all the way from the United States in search of his prey. Even though it was a vampire named Manitou who was responsible, the man sets his sights on Count Dracula, and he’s got a gun loaded with silver bullets!
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Frankenstein as “the priest”
- Chikara Aritake as “the passenger plane pilot”
- Duke Red as “the English teacher”
Dracula Train (ドラキュラ列車)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/11/19
The Japan Railways Co. has restored an old steam locomotive in a bid to promote tourism. However, the train suddenly starts moving by itself every night, running over and killing people, and is soon nicknamed the “Vampire Train.” When Professor Hellsing goes to investigate, the unmanned train begins to chase him and Count Dracula, worried that the train is giving vampires a bad name, has to intervene.
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Nylon as “the Japan Railways Co. employee”
- Dr. Ochanomizu as “the retired locomotive engineer”
- Dr. Fooler as “Professor Hellsing”
The Jaws of Dracula (ジョーズ・オブ・ドラキュラ)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/11/26
Suffering from a tooth-ache, Count Dracula is dragged against his will by his daughter Chocola to see a dentist. His attitude changes quickly though, when the count learns that the dentists is in fact a beautiful woman. However, when the dentist accidentally discovers a group of jewel-smugglers, the gang members grab and kidnap her.
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Hamegg as “the smugglers’ delivery man”
- Rock Holmes as “Dr. Tanaka’s husband”
Plagued Dracula (ドラキュラくずれ)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/12/03
Chocola and her friends in the Sci-Fi Club have been working for weeks on a huge alien model for a school festival. However, when the big day comes, the model disappears and the club members all begin to complain about having a head ache – could it be an alien curse? Meanwhile Count Dracula, who is there enjoying the festivities runs across a life-like alien in a storage room…
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Gratin as “Igor”
Failed Dracula (さんざんドラキュラ)
Weekly Shonen Champion (週刊少年チャンピオン)
1979/12/10
A group of Elementary School-aged boys decide to act like their favourite TV superheroes and round up some villains. Of course their first target is the Western-style castle on the edge of town, the home of Count Dracula. The boys have chosen it because Igor had yelled at one of them earlier, and they’ve decided anyone who lives there must be a villain. However, after they sneak into the castle, Chocola teaches them a lesson about playing “war games”, using the tragic wars of Count Dracula‘s homeland of Romania to illustrate her point.
- Don Dracula as “himself”
- Chocola as “herself”
- Gratin as “Igor”
