Chibi Maruko-chan (Japanese: ちびまる子ちゃん, “Little Maruko-chan”) is a shōjo 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 shōjo 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”;[1] 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 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]
On April 25, 2020, it was announced that the second series would be suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[4] On June 14, 2020, it was announced that it would resume on June 21, 2020.[5]
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