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lizardtaro · 2 years

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Little Ghost Q-Taro #20

Once again, it's been a while... I'm really sorry that I couldn't keep up my daily streak. It only lasted like... what... 10 episodes? However, I guess it was inevitable that my motivation to post stuff about every episode went away. At the beginning, it was new and exciting to write stuff about an anime that hardly anyone knows about. Eventually, this excitement fades and it turns more into something like a chore; something that I have to force myself doing. That doesn't mean that I don't like the anime anymore or anything, I love Q-Taro as much as ever! It's just that writing up stuff is a lot of work, especially for someone who doesn't usually write long texts in English. Anyways, enough rambling! I WILL continue - it will just be a little slower as usual. Also, I am happy to announce that I have received all 510 episodes. I'll add and rate every episode on Favslist.com, once the website returns to its full functionality. Until then I'll use a simple Excel sheet for my summaries, ratings, etc.

This episode is called "Qちゃんはスター歌手", which translates to "Q-Taro Is A Star Singer". And what a star singer he is, according to the title card, where we can see him dancing and singing in front of an audience, with the spotlights shining brightly on him. That illusion quickly gets destroyed when the episode actually starts. We can hear someone trying to sing, but their horrifying voice causes the ground to shake, Mr. Adolf to wake up from his slumber, and everyone in the house of the Ōhara's put their hands on their ears, begging for that horrible singing to stop!

A few seconds later we can see who this voice belongs to - it's Q-Taro! Well, it was quite obvious from the beginning, but now we have visual proof. Q-Taro sings in front of a TV which shows a female singer (she kinda looks like Yoshiko) singing. Shōta, Shin'ichi and Mr. Adolf gently open the door and their facial expressions speak volumes - they really don't like Q-Taro singing, because... well... his singing is kinda... terrible? To me personally, he's got the voice of an angel (well, to be real, it's the voice of Fusako Amachi, who sadly passed away in 2019) but it looks like the characters in the show wouldn't quite agree with me. Finally, the mom comes into the room and interrupts Q-Taro's singing by scolding him. Q-Taro gets angry and scolds back, much to the mom's surprise. He probably says that she shouldn't dare to interrupt an upcoming star singer during his practice. Everyone's surprised: "Q-Taro, a STAR SINGER?!". Q-Taro giggles and explains his antics. For some reason, he is fixated on becoming a star singer, probably like the ones you can see on TV.

Later the same day, Q-Taro practices some more, this time using a microphone which is connected to some audio equipment. The earth shakes every time Q-Taro doesn't hit a note (which means all the time). The Ōhara's can't take it anymore. Shōta and Shin'ichi come into the room and interrupt him. More talking happens, of which I understand nothing. Looks like the brothers try to stop Q-Taro from singing, but at the same time they don't have the guts to tell Q-Taro that his singing is not up to snuff, so Q-Taro continues with his practice. The brothers and Mr. Adolf quickly leave the house, leaving the mom behind. She tells Q-Taro to stop, I guess. Because in the next scene, we see a grumpy Q-Taro flying up to the roof.

He's gonna show them who's the best singer out there, oh yes he will! He continues to sing until Doronpa appears. He screams his lungs out (seriously, it's so loud that the audio is kinda messed up in that part, lol) and wants Q-Taro to stop. Q-Taro retorts quite aggressively and Doronpa looks worried. A few seconds later, the freakin' police shows up! Sounds like a bad fan-fiction, but it really happens. The police tells Q-Taro to keep it down, I guess. He's probably disturbing the whole neighborhood with his singing.

Oh boy. Doesn't seem to be that much of a good start for a star singer, right? Q-Taro flies around with a depressed look on his face. He comes to a stop when he sees an old man sitting on a bench. Q-Taro decides to show his singing skills one more time - surely there must be someone out there who appreciates his talent, right? RIGHT?! What Q-Taro doesn't seem to realize though, is the fact that the man is hard of hearing. No idea what the man says, but it once again ticks Q-Taro off. He probably gives Q-Taro an idea then: he should show his talent to a bigger audience.

In the next scene, we see Q-Taro walking inside the building of NNB TV. He greets the secretary ("Konichiwa!") and shows her a cassette tape. He probably wants her to air it TV. Before she can say anything, a message gets announced through one of the speakers, probably saying that there's a recording happening in studio xyz and that nobody should interrupt the recording. At least that's what I'm assuming based on what happens next: Q-Taro now knows where he needs to go and he gets translucent, much to the secretary's shock.

A few seconds later, we see the insides of studio xyz. Looks like a music show is being recorded, and there's even a live audience and a TV host! The host announces the next participant who 's going to sing while the band plays music in the background. Q-Taro quite literally "cuts in line" and begs the actual singer to let him have the honor of doing the singing. The singer looks pissed and the TV host seems to be nervous.

Q-Taro just wants to show his talent real quick and he starts singing. The camera zooms in and we can see a close-up of Q-Taro's beautiful face. Oh, and the ground is shaking again. Btw. I noticed that his singing doesn't sync up with his lips moving. Not sure what happened here... maybe they initially wanted to use a different voice clip for the singing? Or maybe it's a stylistic choice because his singing is to terrible. Either way, his singing knocks out everyone in the studio. Q-Taro gets picked up by what appears to be a studio worker and he drops him on his butt. Now Q-Taro is butthurt (literally).

Aww, poor Q-Taro. Will he ever find someone who appreciates his singing?

In the next scene, we see Shōta playing baseball with some class mates and Tsuyoshi. The ball gets sent flying and Tsuyoshi shouts that Shōta should catch the ball. Shōta runs on the playing field, certain that he can catch that ball, but then he bumps into something invisible. It's obviously Q-Taro, who materializes and catches the ball. Shōta and Q-Taro have a talk with each other. Looks like Q-Taro is pouring out his woes to Shōta. Shōta probably suggests to get some real training lessons from someone whose job it is to teach about music.

Later that same day, we see a neat house in which a pianist is teaching children to sing to some melodies. Q-Taro walks by and notices what's going on. He gets translucent and materializes inside the room in which the pianist and the child are. They both are shocked (naturally, because if a ghost appeared in front of me I'd be shocked too). Q-Taro explains his plan, but it looks like the pianist doesn't give out free lessons, lol. He crosses his arms and denies his services. Q-Taro himself also crosses his arms and sits on the floor, being all sulky. It seems like Q-Taro's refusal to leave makes the pianist change his mind, as he is now willing to see what he can do with Q-Taro's voice. Q-Taro is happy again and gladly showcases his singing skills.

You can pretty much guess what happens next, as it happened countless times before in this episode. Q-Taro starts singing, the earth starts shaking, and they all fall to the floor because they can't take this torment! Q-Taro realizes that everyone collapsed and stops his singing. This time, the pianist has visibly trouble getting back up again; it looks as if he's dying, lmao. But then he points at Q-Taro and says something mean, which makes the child that the pianist taught before laugh. Q-Taro is pissed and leaves.

He walks around town, being all pissed and sad. He then gets an idea! He buys some eggs from the local market and... swallows them whole?! Not sure what the idea behind this is. Probably there's a saying or something that you will get a better voice if you eat eggs?? Or maybe it's just another thing that Q-Taro didn't understand. Anyways, he swallows lots of eggs and then looks around, checking if someone is watching him. He then jumps up a little bit, floats in the air, and we can hear bird noises. This is as confusing as it reads. After his little "bird" jump, he opens his mouth for some singing practice, but all the chicks in the eggs have hatched and are now leaving Q-Taro's throat.

He realizes that this didn't really help with his voice. What a failure! However, a strange person walks up on him and mentions that he can be the star of a show! Q-Taro is ecstatic! Finally there's someone who recognizes his talent!!

The scene switches to an amusement park. More specifically, it's a "tunnel of horror". Yup. Q-Taro's just got a job in which he can really shine, he surely will be the star when he scares the visitors. Q-Taro himself is surrounded by creepy creatures (well, actors with masks and make-up, I believe) and it looks like this was not what Q-Taro's looking for. He does a silly face to showcase his scary skills and then disappears. Funnily enough, that scared the actors who are supposed to be scary themselves.

Looks like just another damp squib. Q-Taro tries so hard to make his dream of becoming a star singer a reality, yet he fails again and again. It's no surprise that he walks home, with sad music playing in the background and a sad expression on his face. But wait... not all hope is lost! The Ōhara family is standing outside their house and they are waiting for Q-Taro to return. Not only that, a person who seems to be on the lookout for new talented people is waiting as well! They all happily greet Q-Taro when he comes home.

Shōta likely explains that there's finally someone who wants to make a star out of Q-Taro! He's probably seen some footage of Q-Taro somewhere and contacted the Ōhara's. Q-Taro's sad face is gone. In fact, he's so happy now that he jumps into Shōta's arms and cries tears of joy, awww. How truly touching! Q-Taro drives off, sitting in the backseat of the fancy car the talent-seeking guy came with, and waves goodbye. It's almost as if he's going to Hollywood or something. The scene switches to the building in which Q-Taro showed his talent in. We don't get to see what he was actually doing there, yet! But something seems off... Q-Taro seems to be crying as he leaves the building. Not a good sign... especially since the talent-seeking guy waved him goodbye in a good mood, so surely his recording must have been satisfactory?? Maybe it was a similar disappointment to the "tunnel of horror" one, as in people not recognizing Q-Taro's talent.

In the night or late evening, the Ōhara family is waiting outside for their visitors, which includes Doronpa, Yoshiko, Tsuyoshi, Kaminari and... uh... that smart-looking guy from Shōta's class, I sadly forgot his name and am too lazy to look it up now, lol. Basically, every interesting character that we've seen so far is now at the Ōhara's. Doronpa questions which talent Q-Taro could possibly possess, and they all walk inside and cuddle up in front of the TV, waiting for the show to air. Meanwhile, a sad and grumpy Q-Taro is waiting outside in an alley. He clearly doesn't seem pleased with how the things are going.

Finally, the show starts. Q-Taro is pacing up and down outside the house, until he hears that the show is about to begin. Finally, the moment of truth is coming!! The show starts off with some birds chirping into big microphones. The next scene shows Q-Taro!! He is... um... making... frog noises, with a frog hat on and frogs in the background. Everyone seems to be amused by this embarrassing performance. Except the Ōhara family - they are shocked because that wasn't what they expected, I guess. Shōta is even blushing due to the second-hand embarrassment. Q-Taro appears in the room and tells everyone to not look! He obscures the TV with his body and now everyone in the room is laughing, ending the episode.

So yeah. That was a pretty rad episode, I'd say! I just feel a little sad for Q-Taro. Despite trying hard, he ended up as a... well... pretty much a laughing stock. I guess, sometimes it's just better to accept that you are simply not good at something, instead of forcing yourself to become good or accepted at that thing. I'm in the same boat as Q-Taro. I can't sing for shit. I can't draw for shit. No matter how much I want to be good at those sings, no matter how hard I practice - the end result will be the same. That doesn't mean that one can't improve with LOTS of practice. I just think that the amount of practice one has to put into these things, is an excruciating effort and might not be worth the energy and time, which could be better spent on other things. Now I’m looking forward to the next episode!

#q-taro #little ghost q-taro #q-taro the ghost #オバケのQ太郎 #commentary #lol #オバQ

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