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Chibi Maruko-chan Series Gets 3DCG Animated Film in China
posted on by Alex Mateo
Sakura Production announced on Saturday that Momoko Sakura's Chibi Maruko-chan manga is inspiring a 3DCG animated film in China titled Chibi Maruko-chan: Kigen Hikki (Chibi Maruko Chan: The Fantastic Notebook). The film will open during the Chinese New Year in 2022. The company unveiled a teaser poster:
Lulu Xue is directing the film. Guangdong Sublime Media Co.,Ltd is producing.
Sakura Production teased that in the film, Maruko will jump out of her everyday life and travel on a mysterious adventure in a new world of fantasy.
The original Chibi Maruko-chan manga inspired a television anime that is almost consistently the #3 rated television anime series after Sazae-san and Detective Conan. (Chibi Maruko-chan airs on Fuji TV on Sundays at 6:00 p.m., before Sazae-san at 6:30 p.m.) The first anime series ran from 1990 to 1992, and the ongoing second series premiered in 1995.
The manga's creator Momoko Sakura passed away due to breast cancer at the age of 53 in August 2018. She serialized the manga in Shueisha's Ribon magazine from 1986 to 1996. The comedy manga, which follows the everyday life of a third-grade schoolgirl, has about 32 million copies in print. Sakura launched a four-panel version in a Japanese newspaper in 2007, and she ended that version in 2011.
The Chibi Maruko-chan manga is getting new chapters drawn by Sakura Production, which is staffed by long-time assistants of Sakura. The manga is running irregularly in Ribon.
Sources: Sakura Production, Chibi Maruko Chan: The Fantastic Notebook's website, Comic Natalie
