Crayon Shin-chan

Crayon Shin-chan (クレヨンしんちゃん 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. An anime adaptation of the series began airing on TV Asahi in 1992 and is still ongoing. The show has now been dubbed in Danish, English, Dutch, German, Greek, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Galician, Catalan, Basque, Polish, Mandarin, Korean, Cantonese, Hindi, Hebrew, Telugu, Tamil, Tagalog, Indonesian, Malay, Khmer, Thai and Vietnamese.

 

Due to the death of author Usui, the manga in its current form ended on September 11, 2009, as announced in a broadcast of the anime on October 16, 2009. Although the series formally ended on February 5, 2010, it was announced on December 1, 2009 that a new manga would begin in the summer of 2010 by members of Usui's team., titled New Crayon Shin-chan (新クレヨンしんちゃん Shin Kureyon Shin-chan).

Crayon Shin-chan first appeared in a Japanese weekly magazine called Weekly Manga Action, which is published by Futabasha. The anime Crayon Shin-chan has been on TV Asahi since April 13, 1992, and on several television networks, worldwide.

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 behavior. 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 infamous "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 people have you killed?" to tough-looking men or "When are you going to die?" to elderly people.

During the beginning of the series, the TV show was mostly based on the storyline in the original manga. As the show progressed, more and more episodes became anime-original. The show works under a sliding timescale where the characters have maintained their ages throughout the course of the show. 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 and his kindergarten teacher's child), Shinnosuke would be seven years old and in second grade, but he is not.

Yoshito Usui died on September 11, 2009 after a fall at Mount Arafune. After Usui died, Futabasha originally planned to end Crayon Shin-chan in November 2009. Upon discovering new manuscripts, Futabasha decided to extend the comic's run until the March 2010 issue of the magazine, which shipped on February 5, 2010.

ComicsOne has translated ten volumes of Crayon Shin-chan into English and released it in the United States. Occasional pop culture references familiar to Americans, such as Pokémon and Britney Spears, who has been known to be a fan of the series herself, were added to increase the appeal to American audiences. The manga is mirrored from its original to read from left to right. Starting with the sixth volume, many of the names were changed to the ones used in the Phuuz English version of the anime, even though the dub never aired in North America. This translation is rated Teen.

Since then, American publisher DrMaster took over the licenses of several manga series, including Crayon Shin-chan, from ComicsOne. No new volumes of Crayon Shin-chan were released under the DrMaster imprint.

On July 28, 2007, DC Comics' manga division CMX announced the acquisition of the Crayon Shin-chan manga. The CMX version is rated Mature instead of Teen from ComicsOne, because of nudity, sexual humor, and bad language. The first volume was released on February 27, 2008, with uncensored art, and the style of jokes that frequent the Adult Swim dub with some throw backs to the original version, such as his original greeting. However, volume 10 omitted a gag which was in the ComicsOne version.

On April 11, 2012, One Peace Books announced their release of the manga in an omnibus format. The three omnibus volumes were released simultaneously on October 15, 2012. The One Peace Books version retained the CMX version for the first 11 Japanese volumes. Volume 4 was released on November 13, 2013 and included the Japanese volume 12, which was never released in English.

The Crayon Shin-chan manga spin-off, Action Mask, is currently available as read-only/print-only subscription from Crunchyroll and Futabasha.

he anime was first dubbed into English by Vitello Productions in Burbank, California in 1994. It ran on Fox Kids in the United Kingdom, and on RTÉ Two in the Republic of Ireland. The dub is of American origin, with veteran voice actors such as Kath Soucie, Russi Taylor, Grey DeLisle, Pat Fraley, Eric Loomis and Anndi McAfee playing the characters. Soucie voiced Shin and Misae. Despite the American origin, this dub was never licensed in North America. Many characters had their names changed, and nude scenes were edited to remove any signs of indecent exposure. Most adult jokes were re-made into family-friendly jokes, and the profanity was edited out. However, the frequent appearance of Shinnosuke's naked buttocks, as well as humor relating to breast-size and sexual themes, remained in the finished product. Some episodes that displayed adult material and mature content were not dubbed at all.

In 2003, Phuuz Entertainment continued where Vitello left off. Their episodes featured a new cast of voice artists (Diane Michelle, Julie Maddalena, Peter Doyle). The Phuuz dub was pitched to Adult Swim, but was rejected, as Cartoon Network felt that it was better suited to a younger audience.

RTÉ Two has not shown the series since 2003, and on Jetix, the series was eventually relegated to shorts in-between programs, with more edits.