Sumire Sakura ( さくらすみれ Sakura Sumire ?) Voiced by: Teiyū Ichiryūsai, Live-Action: Michiko Shimizu Maruko's mother. His birthday is June 20, 1934, making him 40 years old during the series. He drinks every now and then but is a kind loving dad. He was introduced to Maruko's mother by her friend. Hiroshi Sakura ( さくらひろし Sakura Hiroshi ?) Voiced by: Yūsaku Yara, Live-Action: Katsumi Takahashi Maruko's father. She knows a lot about her mother, father and grandmother. Maruko has a problem with her sister cooking and throws whirlwind tantrums. It is implied that the show is drawn by Maruko herself. She loves reading manga and is a good artist, and her stated goal is to become a manga artist when she grows up. She has many food dislikes, including natto and tomatoes. She is similar to Calvin in Calvin and Hobbes in that she often uses adult-like language to express her child-like feelings. Nevertheless, she is a well-meaning child who tries to do good. Maruko, like many kids, tries to avoid homework and chores, and she takes advantage of her doting grandfather and squabbles with her sister.
She is lazy, disorganized and usually late for school, in strong contrast with her neat, calm and tidy older sister (sixth-grader) who must share her room with her. Maruko) Momoko "Maruko" Sakura ( さくらももこ Sakura Momoko ?, まる子 Maruko) Voiced by: Tarako, Live-Action: Ei Morisako The title character, Maruko (born May 8, 1965) is a nine-year-old third-grade student raised in a relatively poor family of six.
Characters Sakura family File:Sakura-familylow.jpgīack row, from left: Hiroshi, Sumire, and Tomozo middle row, from left: Sakiko and Kotake and front row: Momoko (a.k.a. Themes The trademark face fault of this series, the manga and anime and drama all, in reaction to an awkward "don't know what to say" situation (or sometimes, embarrassment) is the sudden appearance of vertical lines ( 黒い線 kuroi sen ?) on a character's face, sometimes with an unexplained gust of wind blowing above that character's head. 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. In 1989, the manga tied to receive the Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo. Maruko's style and themes are sometimes compared to the classic comic Sazae-san.
CHIBI MARUKO CHAN SERIES
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.
The nostalgic, honest and thoughtful tone of the strip led to its becoming popular among a wider audience. Many stories are inspired by incidents from the author's own life, and some characters are based on her family and friends. The author's intent was to write "essays in manga form". 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. Other semi-autobiographical stories by the author had appeared in Ribon and Ribon Original in 19, and were included in the first "Chibi Maruko-chan" tankōbon in 1987. The first story under the title "Chibi Maruko-chan" was published in the August 1986 edition of the shōjo manga magazine Ribon. The series is set in the former city of Shimizu, now part of Shizuoka City, birthplace of its author. The series depicts the simple, everyday life of a little girl nicknamed Maruko and her family in suburban mid- seventies Japan. 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 Januto September 27, 1992.