Киік Марүко-сан: Еже күннің оқиғалары

Japanese manga series

is a 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 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"; 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 the shōjo category. As of 2006, the collected volumes of the manga had sold more than 31 million copies in Japan, making it one of the best selling manga series. On April 25, 2020, it was announced that the second series would be suspended due to the COVID 19 pandemic. On June 14, 2020, it was announced that it would resume on June 21, 2020.

The trademark face fault of this series, 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) on a character's face, sometimes with an unexplained gust of wind blowing above that character's head.

The series has a large number and variety of secondary and recurring characters, some inspired by people who Sakura met. Some of them debuted in the anime and others derive from the original manga. Following are descriptions of the main characters and family members that appear frequently in all chapters and episodes.

The original Chibi Maruko chan manga was serialized in the shōjo oriented Ribon Magazine. 14 volumes were published from July 1987 to December 1996, with a 15th volume published in February 2003. In July 2007, a 4 frame version of Chibi Maruko chan was published in every morning edition of several Japanese newspapers such as the Tokyo Shimbun and the Chunichi Shimbun. The 16th volume of the manga was published on April 15, 2009, and 17th volume was issued on Dec 25, 2018, four months after Momoko Sakura's death. The 18th volume was issued on Oct 25, 2022. The new manga was produced by Sakura's long time assistant Botan Kohagi and other assistants at Sakura Production due to Sakura's death in 2018. The volume contains seven new chapters, and are based on stories that Sakura originally created for the Chibi Maruko chan television anime.

A spin off manga by Momoko Sakura titled Nagasawa kun (永沢君) focuses on the character Kimio Nagasawa on High School, was published on the magazine Shogakkan's Big Comic Spirits from January 1993 and May 1995. It was made into an live action drama, premiering on Tokyo Broadcasting System Television on April 1, 2013. A square headed parody version of manga Chibi Maruko chan titled Chibi Shikaku chan (ちびしかくちゃん) was published on Shueisha's Grand Jump magazine from October 19, 2016.