is a Japanese sports manga series about sumo wrestling. It is written and illustrated by Tetsuya Chiba.
Matsutarou Sakaguchi is lazy and quick tempered. As a result, he is stuck in middle school even though he is an adult. One day he gets in a fight with a sumo wrestler and they take the fight to a sumo ring. The attending sumo stable masters are impressed by Sakaguchi's strength and convince Sakaguchi to come to Tokyo. Sakaguchi has an ulterior motive though. A teacher he has a crush on, Reiko Minami recently moved to Tokyo and the sumo stable is close to her home. Sakaguchi begins training and competing in sumo while dreaming of the day he can marry Reiko.
Notari Matsutarà  was serialized by Shogakukan in Big Comic magazine from August 1973 to June 1993, then after a hiatus it returned from October 1995 to March 1998. From 1995 to 1998, Tarà  Nami was also responsible for the storyboard of the series. The complete series was originally encapsulated into 36 tankà Âbon volumes by Shogakukan between March 1976 and March 2000. It has been republished twice; 8 volumes were released between 1988 and 1991, and 22 volumes were published in 2003âÂÂ2004.
It was adapted as a series of ten original video animations (OVA) released between November 22, 1990, and April 25, 1991. It was directed by Yoshio Takeuchi and its ending theme, , was performed by Ikuzo Yoshi.
A television series titled , with lead character Matsutarà  Sakuguchi voiced by Ken Matsudaira, began broadcast on TV Asahi affiliates on April 6, 2014. It was also streamed on Crunchyroll for, among others, English-language countries United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and United Kingdom. Yukio Kaizawa directed the series that was produced by Tomohiro Tsuji from TV Asahi and Gyarmath Bogdan from Toei Animation.
Notari Matsutaro received the 1978 Shogakukan Manga Award for seinen/general manga. Katsuhiro Otomo cited the pacing of Notari Matsutarà  as an influence, particularly on his series Domu.