The staff of Momoko Sakura’s Chibi Maruko-chan and Yoshito Usui’s Crayon Shin-chan manga announced on Tuesday that the two manga will have a collaboration crossover manga to celebrate the titles’ 40th and 35th anniversary, respectively. The collaboration manga will appear in the May issue of Shueisha’s Ribon magazine, where the Chibi Maruko-chan manga runs irregularly, on April 3. The collaboration will also appear on the official Manga Crayon Shin-chan website in two parts, on April 3, then on April 20.
Image via Crayon Shin-chan franchise’s X/Twitter account
© S.P ©U/F
Image via Chibi Maruko-chan franchise’s website
© S.P ©U/F
Image via Chibi Maruko-chan franchise’s website
© S.P ©U/F
Image via Chibi Maruko-chan franchise’s website
© S.P ©U/F
The Chibi Maruko-chan crossover installment in Ribon magazine is titled “Maruko, Shinnosuke ni Deau” (Maruko Meets Shinnosuke). In it, Maruko meets the Nohara family, who are visiting Shizuoka, by chance, and Maruko and Shinnosuke get lost together.
The two-part Crayon Shin-chan collaboration is titled “Maru-chan Kasukabe ni Kitazo” (Maru-chan Comes to Kasukabe), where Maruko visits Kusakabe along with her family. Maruko and Shinnosuke’s fathers, both named Hiroshi, instantly hit it off.
Chibi Maruko-chan creator Momoko Sakura passed away due to breast cancer at the age of 53 in August 2018. She serialized the manga in Shueisha’s Ribon magazine from 1986 to 1996. The comedy manga, which follows the everyday life of a third-grade schoolgirl, has about 32 million copies in print. Sakura launched a four-panel version in a Japanese newspaper in 2007, and she ended that version in 2011.
The manga is getting new chapters drawn by Sakura Production, which is staffed by long-time assistants of Sakura. The manga is running irregularly in Ribon.
The original Chibi Maruko-chan manga inspired a television anime that is almost consistently the #3 rated television anime series after Sazae-san and Detective Conan. (Chibi Maruko-chan airs on Fuji TV on Sundays at 6:00 p.m., before Sazae-san at 6:30 p.m.) The first anime series ran from 1990 to 1992, and the ongoing second series premiered in 1995.
Yoshito Usui launched the original Crayon Shin-chan manga in Futabasha’s Manga Action magazine in 1990. Usui passed away in a hiking accident on September 11, 2009. The manga inspired a long-running franchise that includes a consistently highly-rated television anime adaptation that has been running weekly since 1992, a yearly anime film, games, merchandise, and more. The manga is reported to have over 148 million copies in circulation (but not all sold) worldwide.
Usui’s staff launched the Shin Crayon Shin-chan manga in Futabasha’s Monthly Manga Town magazine in August 2010. The manga moved to the Manga Crayon Shin-chan website when Monthly Manga Town ended publication in December 2023.
Sources: Chibi Maruko-chan franchise’s website, Crayon Shin-chan franchise’s X/Twitter account, Comic Natalie
