Norakuro

is a Japanese manga series created by Suihō Tagawa, originally published by Kodansha in Shōnen Kurabu, and one of the first series' to be reprinted in format. The titular protagonist, Norakuro, or Norakuro-kun, is an anthropomorphic black and white dog inspired by Felix the Cat. The name Norakuro is an abbreviation of and .

==Media== ===Manga=== left|thumb|English version of a 1937 Norakuro strip as published in the sixth ''Kramer's Ergot'' comics anthology. In the original story, the central character Norakuro was a soldier serving in an army of dogs called the . The strip's publication began in Kodansha's Shōnen Kurabu in 1931, and was based on the Imperial Japanese Army of the time; the manga artist, Suihō Tagawa, had served in the Imperial Army from 1919 to 1922. Norakuro was gradually promoted from private to captain in the stories, which began as humorous episodes, but eventually developed into propaganda tales of military exploits against the "pigs army" on the "continent" - a thinly veiled reference to the Second Sino-Japanese War. The series became a hit in Japan; Shonen Kurabu's circulation was of 750.000 in 1936, and several Norakuro-themed merchandise (toys, stationery and other products - licensed or not) were sold. Kimihiko Nakamura argues that "Norakuro connected children with the war and became a representative of wartime children's culture as an unofficial propaganda hero."