樱桃小丸子

Chibi Maruko-chan (ちびまる子ちゃん^?) is a shōjo manga series by Momoko Sakura, later adapted into an anime TV series by Nippon Animation, which originally aired on Fuji Television from January 7,1990 to September 27, 1992. The series depicts the simple, everyday life of a little girl nicknamed Maruko and her family in suburban late-seventies Japan. The series is set in the former city ofShimizu, now part of Shizuoka City, birthplace of it’s author.

The first story under the title “Chibi Maruko-chan” was published in the August 1986 edition of the shōjomanga magazine Ribon. Other semi-autobiographical stories by the author had appeared in Ribon andRibon 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, althoughShueisha (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”.^[1] Many stories are inspired by incidents from the author’s 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.

The Chibi Maruko-chan series has 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 received the Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo.^[2] As of 2006, the collected volumes of the manga had sold more than 31 million copies in Japan, making it the fifth best-selling shōjo manga ever.^[3]