The popular Japanese anime TV show Chibi Maruko-chan will start streaming on Crunchyroll’s website on January 14th this year. Crunchyroll updated their list of anime shows that people can watch this winter. Chibi Maruko-chan was one of the big new additions.
The anime will have English subtitles at first. Later on, Crunchyroll plans to add an English language dub too. Fans in the US, Canada, Singapore, and the Philippines will all be able to watch the show.
Both older episodes from when Chibi Maruko-chan first started airing on TV in Japan and newer ones will be available.
Chibi Maruko-chan is one of the longest-running anime series ever. It will join other big anime titles coming to Crunchyroll this winter that were also announced recently.
Crunchyroll’s website shared news about several new and returning anime shows people can watch in the next few months.
Chibi Maruko-chan: The Complete Series Now Available on Crunchyroll
Diehard Chibi Maruko-chan enthusiasts have been able to peep at some early episodes on the YouTube machine before. But now all the anime’s episodes can be jammed together on Crunchyroll for maximum binge-watching. Uber fans are pumped about this development.
The Chibi Maruko-chan stories first started as comic books crafted by manga master Momoko Sakura way back in ’86. The manga series racked up a solid 18 volumes before concluding in 2022. This long-running manga also spawned a duo of anime TV adaptations.
The second Chibi Maruko-chan anime that’s still truckin’ along today holds the record for the fifth lengthiest anime series ever. It’s cranked out a whopping 1,417 episodes so far.
That’s even more episodes than the wildly popular anime One Piece, sitting at 1,088 episodes and counting.
So anime enthusiasts can finally watch all of Chibi Maruko-chan’s massive episode stack in one spot on Crunchyroll. This is rad news for devotees of the classic anime franchise.
Chibi Maruko-chan’s Popularity Surpasses Even Gundam
Chibi Maruko-chan has passed One Piece in more than just a number of episodes. It’s also one of the most popular anime series ever in Japan. In 2023, it ranked fourth for most watched anime shows in Japan.
Even the creator of the hugely popular Gundam anime franchise admitted Chibi Maruko-chan and One Piece are more popular.
In a recent interview, Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino said the anime boom is slowing down. But he surprisingly said the Gundam series isn’t as popular as Chibi Maruko-chan and One Piece.
Tomino said Gundam focuses on giant robots too much. He said the themes aren’t as strong as in Chibi Maruko-chan and One Piece. Even though Gundam is famous, Tomino admitted it can’t match the popularity of those other two anime hits.
Chibi Maruko-chan surpassing One Piece in a number of episodes shows how incredibly popular it is. It’s been a fan favorite in Japan for decades, even more than giant robot shows like Gundam.
About Chibi Maruko-chan
Chibi Maruko-chan is a Japanese manga comic series written and drawn by Momoko Sakura. The manga follows the everyday life of a young girl called Maruko and her family in 1970s suburban Japan.
Maruko is a troublemaker and each story shows how she and her friends get out of tricky situations. The manga is set in the real town where the author grew up.
The first Chibi Maruko-chan manga was published in 1986 in the Ribon magazine. The author had written some other semi-autobiographical stories before this in 1984 and 1985 that were also included in the first Chibi Maruko-chan book collection in 1987.
The author started creating and submitting the manga strips when she was still in high school, but the publisher didn’t start running them until over a year later.
The author meant the manga to be like essays in comic form, with many stories based on her own life and some characters inspired by her family and friends. The nostalgic, honest tone made the manga popular with many kinds of readers.
An anime TV series adaptation of Chibi Maruko-chan aired from 1990-1992. There have also been games, movies, merchandise, and a second anime series that started in 1995 and is still running today.
Maruko’s style is sometimes compared to the classic Sazae-san comic strip. In 1989, the manga won an award for best girls’ manga.
By 2006, the manga volumes had sold over 31 million copies in Japan, making it one of the best-selling manga ever.
In 2020 the anime series was temporarily suspended due to COVID-19, but resumed a few months later in June 2020 and is still running today.
