The 9-year-old chaos agent who weaponized childhood pettiness before it was cool.
Chibi Maruko chan is the nickname of a sweetly obnoxious 9-year-old girl. She tricks her grandfather, ponders for hours over how to spend her allowance, and hates sitting next to ugly boys. She talks, feels and lives just as real kids do. As the second term commences, Maruko and her classmates return to their small groups. Maruko’s group includes two naughty boys and Maruko is forced to be one of their subordinates. She seems to face a lot of pressure at school.
Acting
TARAKO's voice work makes petulance genuinely endearing.
Direction
Suda captures the epic triviality of elementary school stakes.
Production
Hand-drawn warmth that CGI would murder instantly.
Director
Yumiko Suda
TARAKO
Momoko Sakura (voice)
Teiyu Ichiryusai
Sumire Sakura (voice)
Kei Tomiyama
Tomozou Sakura (voice)
Yuko Sasaki
Kotake Sakura (voice)
Kappei Yamaguchi
Kenichi Oono (voice)
Ako Mayama
Satoshi Sugiyama (voice)
Tsutomu Kashiwakura
Noritaka Hamazaki (voice)
Masami Kikuchi
Kazuhiko Hanawa (voice)
Naoko Watanabe
Tamae Honami (voice)
Megumi Urawa
Maki Makimura (voice)
Nobuo Tobita
Sueo Maruo (voice)
Miki Narahashi
Hanako Migiwa (voice)
Keaton Yamada
Narrator
Chafurin
Hideji Saijou (voice)
Yuko Mizutani
Sakiko Sakura (voice)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Chibi Maruko-chan is Japan's longest-running slice-of-life manga; the 2019 film commemorated what would have been creator Momoko Sakura's 55th birthday after her 2018 death.
The 'ugly boy' gag is deliberately retrograde — Sakura's original 1980s-90s stories unapologetically capture a child's unfiltered cruelty before political correctness existed.
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