Crayon Shin-Chan is a long running manga (Japanese comic) series from Yoshito Usui, who died during a hiking accident on September 11th, 2009. The manga told many vignettes about the mischievous 5-year old Shinnosuke Nohara and his misadventures with his family, classmates, and neighbors. The humor was very low-brow due to Shinnosuke's dense thinking and toilet humor, but it lasted about 49 volumes of manga and spawned a hit anime series with over 650 episodes. With such a successful streak in Japan, it was a matter of time before a US anime distributor like Funimation decided to acquire it for American audiences.
Given its number of episodes and humor based of Japanese culture and puns, the US anime distributor Funimation had quite a task making Shin-Chan accessible to its intended audience. Rather than attempt a direct translation of the series, Funimation thought outside the box and decided to pick and mix from the various vignettes to choose from, redevelop the characters into an even more bizarre bunch, and revise the script to throw in as many jokes, gags, and pop culture references. The series aired on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim during 2007 and is now available on DVD.
It is difficult to compare the original Crayon Shin-Chan to the US adaptation Shin-Chan due to not seeing the original. The plot is barely present. In three to four vignettes during a half hour episode, Shin-Chan manages to annoy, ridicule, or cause mischief to the people he meets. The only developing story during the first 13 episodes occurs when Shinnosuke manages to blow up his family's house and they move into a run down apartment full of new characters to annoy. The animation is crude by today's standards and possibly the 90s standards. Despite all these faults, Shin-Chan is simply great because of its comedy.
While Crayon Shin-Chan is set in Japan during the early 90s, Shin-Chan features more contemporary jokes and feels anything under the sun is open game. The humor ranges from physical comedy, pop culture commentary, political satire, a few nods for the anime fans, and toilet humor. One liners are thrown in to keep the audience laughing. It is amazing how the writing and acting manages to keep the premise fresh and it is fun just to tune in and see what new topics are in season for ribbing.
The low-brow humor may not appeal to the average anime fan. But in the days of giant robots, teens full of emotional angst, and constant merchandising of characters in lieu of actual character development, sometimes a person wants to laugh. Shin-Chan is sure to deliver those laughs.
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