Sazae-san

Sazae-san (Japanese: サザエさん) is a Japanese yonkoma manga series written and illustrated by Machiko Hasegawa. It was first published in Hasegawa’s local paper, the Fukunichi Shinbun (フクニチ新聞), on April 22, 1946. When the Asahi Shimbun wished to have Hasegawa draw the four-panel comic for their paper, she moved to Tokyo in 1949 with the explanation that the main characters had moved from Kyūshū to Tokyo as well. The manga dealt with contemporary situations in Tokyo until Hasegawa retired and ended the series on February 21, 1974.

Sazae-san won the 8th Bungeishunjū Manga Award in 1962.[3] An anime television adaptation by TCJ (later renamed Eiken) began airing in Japan in October 1969 and holds the Guinness World Record for the longest-running animated television series.[4] It has also been adapted into a radio show, theatrical plays and songs.[5]

In the beginning, Sazae was more interested in being with her horse than dressing up in kimono and makeup to attract her future husband. Hasegawa was forward-thinking in that, in her words, the Isono/Fuguta clan would embody the image of the modern Japanese family after World War II.

Sazae was a very “liberated” woman, and many of the early plotlines revolved around Sazae bossing around her husband, to the consternation of her neighbors, who believed that a man should be the head of his household. Later, Sazae became a feminist and was involved in many comical situations regarding her affiliation with her local women’s lib group.

Despite the topical nature of the series, the core of the stories revolved around the large family dynamic, and were presented in a lighthearted, easy fashion. In fact, the final comic, in 1974, revolved around Sazae’s happiness that an egg she cracked for her husband’s breakfast produced a double yolk, with Katsuo remarking about the happiness the “little things” in life can bring.

As of now, the popular Sazae-san anime is frequently taken as nostalgia for traditional Japanese society, since it alludes to a simpler time before modern technology, despite the fact that it was leftist to the point of controversy when it originally ran in Japanese newspapers.