Chibi Maruko-chan (1990-1992, 2006-present)
NOTE: This page is dedicated to Momoko Sakura (The creator of the show, 1965-2018), Kei Tomiyama (the first voice actor of Tomozou Sakura, 1938-1995), Takeshi Aono (the second voice actor of Tomozou Sakura, 1936-2012), Yuko Mizutani (the voice actress of Sakiko Sakura, 1964-2016) and Tarako Isono (the voice actress of Momoko "Maruko" Sakura, 1960-2024)
| Chibi Maruko-chan | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||||||||||||||||
|
Chibi Maruko-chan (Japanese: ちびまる子ちゃん, "Little Maruko-chan") is a manga series written and illustrated by Momoko Sakura. The series depicts the simple, everyday life of Momoko Sakura, a young girl everyone calls Maruko, and her family in suburban Japan in the year 1974. Maruko is a troublemaker, and every episode recounts Maruko's trouble and how she and her friends succeed in solving the situation. The series is set in the former of Irie District (入江町), Shimizu, now part of Shizuoka City, birthplace of its author.
The first story under the title "Chibi Maruko-chan" was published in the August 1986 edition of the manga magazine Ribon. Other semi-autobiographical stories by the author had appeared in Ribon and Ribon Original in 1984 and 1985, and were included in the first "Chibi Maruko-chan" tankōbon in 1987. The author first began writing and submitting strips in her final year of senior high school, although Shueisha (the publisher of Ribon and Ribon Original) did not decide to run them until over a year later. The author's intent was to write "essays in manga form"; many stories are inspired by incidents from her own life, and some characters are based on her family and friends. The nostalgic, honest and thoughtful tone of the strip led to its becoming popular among a wider audience.
Chibi Maruko-chan was adapted into an anime television series by Nippon Animation, which originally aired on Fuji Television and affiliated TV stations from January 7, 1990, to September 27, 1992. It has also spawned numerous games, animated films and merchandising, as well as a second TV series running from 1995 to the present. Maruko's style and themes are sometimes compared to the classic comic Sazae-san. In 1989, the manga tied to receive the Kodansha Manga Award for the shōjo category. As of 2006, the collected volumes of the manga had sold more than 31 million copies in Japan, making it one of the best-selling manga series.
Why Chibi Maruko-chan Is About To Start
- This show was popular in Japan.
- Lot of likable characters such as:
- Momoko "Maruko" Sakura
- Sakiko Sakura (even before flanderization since 2000-2005)
- Tamae Honami
- Kazuhiko Hanawa
- Tomozo Sakura
- Hiroshi Sakura (even before flanderization since 1995-2010, 2015-2017)
- Kotake Sakura
- Sumire Sakura
- Kimio Nagasawa
- Noritaka "Hamaji" Hamazaki
- Taro "Bootaro" Tomita
- Sueo Maruo
- Himeko Jogasaki (despite being mean girl in 1995-2005)
- Kenichi Ono (despite being bully in 1995-1999)
- Great voice acting in the Japanese and Hong Kong English Dubs.
- The modern design is also good.
- There are a handful of good episodes, such as:
- "Maruko Fights with her Sister"
- "I Feel Blue on a Parents' Visiting Day"
- "Having an Adventure with Sis"
- "Mother's Day"
- "The Commemorative Picture for Sis"
- "Employee of the Month"
- "Maruko's Loves Preparing for a Field Trip"
- "Dad and Mom Have A Fight"
- "Maruko's New Dress"
- Some tearjerking and heartwarming moments like, Maruko and her sister Sakiko are hug each other or Nagasawa cares for his family so much.
- It spawned lot of tie-in video games back then.
- Opening and ending themes are extremely nice and good.
Bad Qualities
- The Nick India dub was extremely terrible.
- There are a handful of bad episodes:
- "Sakiko Finally Gives Up With Maruko"
- "Sis Become Obedient to Maruko"
- "Maruko Leaves Something Behind"
- "Let's Exchange Diary"
- "Maruko Makes a Fuss About Pot Dish"
- "Maruko Hates Woolen Panties"
- Momoko "Maruko" Sakura is very unlikable sometimes in some episodes, She became lazy and spoiled brat and she deserves to be punished by her mother.
- Sakiko Sakura was also unlikable sometimes, She always huge jerk to Maruko when she's extremely angry in more episodes and she also suffers from flanderization in 2000-2005.
- Sumire Sakura always angry at Maruko for getting in trouble at school.
- Hiroshi Sakura was suffers from flanderization where he became an abusive father towards poor Maruko in another episodes in 1995-1999 and also suffers from flanderization for being a lazy and idiotic father in 2000-2010, 2015-2017.
- This show can have very dark moments at times.
- The second series return has failed from 1995-2005.
- This series has never release the English dubbed at all in United States, Thanks to Crunchyroll for waiting the announced to be receiving an English dub at a later date.
Trivia
- Creator of Chibi Maruko-chan Momoko Sakura has passed away on August 15 2018.
- The Ocean Studios Dub has been lost.
- Canadian actress Teryl Rothery has listed her involvement with the show on her resume.
- Theme song performance of Chibi Maruko-chan in this lost dub is Brigitta Dau (who the voice of Ranma Saotome (Girl-Type) from Rama ½ eps 1-6, 18)
- Michael Pizzuto, Candice Moore and Russell Wait remembers this show.
- Michael Pizzuto dubbed this show and uploads the video of Chibi Maruko-chan with Animax dub on Facebook since 2015.
- Candice Moore did the voicing of Maruko's older sister Sakiko Sakura in the Animax dub, she returns in the new dub of Chibi Maruko-chan and the voice of Maruko's grandmother Kotake Sakura.
- Russell Wait, who voices The Narrator, did the secretly voicing of Maruko's father Hiroshi Sakura in the Animax dub.
- In the Hong Kong english dubs like Omni Productions and SDI Media, Kimio Nagasawa's voice sounds familiar to Sundae from The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald.
- Voicebox Productions, a Canadian voice acting company also located in Vancouver, has listed a Chibi Maruko-chan pilot for Pioneer Entertainment and Studio B Productions on their website since the early 2000s. No other information on this project is known. As Voicebox only came into existence in 1999, it's likely this was unrelated to the aforementioned Ocean dub.
- This Chibi Maruko-chan pilot dub has also been lost, Canadian voice actor and voice director Terry Klassen doesn't remember the lost pilot dub of Chibi Maruko-chan.
- Tomozou Sakura says "This is the way a man should die" line in the SDI Media Hong Kong dub becoming the internet meme.
Reception
The original Chibi Maruko-chan manga was serialized in the shōjo-oriented Ribon Magazine. 14 volumes were published from July 1987 to December 1996, with a 15th volume published in February 2003. In July 2007, a 4-frame version of Chibi Maruko-chan was published in every morning edition of several Japanese newspapers such as the Tokyo Shimbun and the Chunichi Shimbun.
The 16th volume of the manga was published on April 15, 2009, and 17th volume was issued on Dec 25, 2018.
The 18th volume was issued on Oct 25, 2022. The new manga was produced by Sakura's long-time assistant Botan Kohagi and other assistants at Sakura Production. The volume contains seven new chapters, and are based on stories that Sakura originally created for the Chibi Maruko-chan television anime.