Crayon Shin-chan (Japanese: クレヨンしんちゃん Hepburn: Kureyon Shin-chan), also known as Shin Chan, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshito Usui. It follows the adventures of the five-year-old Shinnosuke «Shin» Nohara and his parents, baby sister, dog, neighbours, and friends and is set in Kasukabe, Saitama Prefecture of Japan.
Crayon Shin-chan first appeared in 1990 in a Japanese weekly magazine called Weekly Manga Action, which was published by Futabasha. Due to the death of author Yoshito Usui, the manga in its original form ended on September 11, 2009. A new manga began in the summer of 2010 by members of Usui’s team,[5] titled New Crayon Shin-chan (新クレヨンしんちゃん Shin Kureyon Shin-chan).
An anime adaptation of the series began airing on TV Asahi in 1992 and is still ongoing on several television networks, worldwide. The show has now been dubbed in 30 languages[6] which aired in 45 countries,[7] has over 970 episodes and 26 full-length films. More than 100 million copies of the manga have been sold worldwide.[7]
An anime spin-off titled Super Shiro has been announced to be released in early 2020, produced by Shin-ei Animation and Science Saru. [8]
Many of the jokes in the series stem from Shin-chan’s occasionally weird, unnatural and inappropriate use of language, as well as from his mischievous behaviour. Consequently, non-Japanese readers and viewers may find it difficult to understand his jokes. In fact, some of them cannot be translated into other languages. In Japanese, certain set phrases almost always accompany certain actions; many of these phrases have standard responses. A typical gag involves Shin-chan confounding his parents by using the wrong phrase for the occasion; for instance, saying «Welcome back» («おかえりなさい» «okaeri nasai») instead of a using a more suitable wording such as «I am home» («ただいま» «Tadaima») when he comes home. Another difficulty in translating arises from the use of onomatopoeic Japanese words. In scolding Shin-chan and attempting to educate him in proper behaviour his parent or tutor may use such a phrase to indicate the correct action. Often through misinterpreting such a phrase as a different, though similar-sounding phrase, or through interpreting it in one sense when another is intended, Shin-chan will embark on a course of action which, while it may be what he thinks is being requested of him, leads to bizarre acts which serve only to annoy his parents or tutors even more. This is not restricted to onomatopoeic words, since almost any word can become a source of confusion for Shin-chan, including English loanwords, such as mistaking «cool» for «pool» («That’s pool!» or «Pu-ru da zo!» («プールだぞ！») for «That’s cool!»).
Some other humorous themes which are repeated in the series are of a more universal nature, such as gags based on physical comedy (such as eating snow with chopsticks) or, as a child, unexpectedly using adult speech patterns or mannerisms. But even there, many of the gags may require an understanding of Japanese culture and/or language to be fully appreciated; for example, his «Mr. Elephant» impression, while being transparently obvious as a physical gag, also has a deeper resonance with contemporary Japanese culture since it refers to the popular Japanese children’s song «Zou-san» (ぞうさん). Shin-chan regularly becomes besotted with pretty female characters who are much older than him, and an additional source of humor is derived from his childlike attempts at wooing these characters, such as by asking them (inappropriately, on several levels) «Do you like green peppers?» (ピーマン好き?). He continually displays a lack of tact when talking to adults, asking questions such as «How many times did you go to the police?» to tough-looking men or «How old are you?» to elderly people.
The series works under a sliding timescale where the characters have maintained their ages throughout the course of the series. Though time has passed to allow for the rise and fall of several pop culture icons, marriages, pregnancies, and births of various characters, all the characters still maintain their age at the time of their introduction. For example, if the two major births in the series are taken into account (Shinnosuke’s sister, Himawari, and his kindergarten teacher’s child), Shinnosuke would be seven years old and in second grade, but he is not.
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