Ohayō! Spank

Ohayō! Spank
Genre	Comedy
Manga
Written by	Shun'ichi Yukimuro (story) Shizue Takanashi (art)
Published by	Kodansha
Anime
Directed by	Shigetsugu Yoshida
Written by	Yutaka Kaneko Yoshimi Shinozaki Masāki Sakurai Chifude Asakura
Studio	Tokyo Movie Shinsha

Ohayou! Spank or more correctly Ohayō! Spank (おはよう!スパンク, Ohayō! Spank) is a manga drawn by Shizue Takanashi, with the original story from Shun'ichi Yukimuro. The story has been adapted into an anime series which was broadcasted in Japan from 1981 to 1982.

In 1981, it received the Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo.

Story

Spank (voiced by Noriko Tsukase), the main character, is a dog whose owner went missing on the high seas. While awaiting his return Spank strays at the beach everyday. One day he meets Aiko Morimura (voiced by Mari Okamoto), a junior high school students, whose father went also missing on a yacht tour ten years ago. Her mother, a designer for hats, left for Paris, leaving Aiko in the care of her uncle, Mr Fujinami. Abandoned, Aiko believes that her father is still alive and awaits his return. She's recently lost her pet dog, Papi, which was a good-bye present from her mother, in a car accident leaving her totally devastated. In the course of the anime Spank begins to lighten up her gloomy mood as he is a clumsy and merry dog with lots of heart. She also falls in love with a friend of Spank's missing owner. Whereas, Spank finds his love for the pet cat of Anna's classmate.

A very amusing and sweet anime, Ohayō! Spank also found tremendous popularity outside Japan, dubbed into French (as Claire et Tipoune), German (as Hallo! Kurt), Spanish, Italian, and Arabic, but remains unreleased in the English language.