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Crayon Shin-chan (Japanese:クレヨンしんちゃん,Hepburn:Kureyon Shin-chan) is a Japanesemanga series written and illustrated byYoshito Usui.Crayon Shin-chan made its first appearance in 1990 in a Japanese weekly magazine calledWeekly Manga Action, which was published byFutabasha. Due to the death of author Yoshito Usui, the manga in its original form ended on September 11, 2009. A new manga began in the summer of 2010 by members of Usui's team,[6] titledNew Crayon Shin-chan (新クレヨンしんちゃん,Shin Kureyon Shin-chan).
Ananimated television adaptation began airing onTV Asahi in 1992 and is still ongoing, with over 1200 episodes. The show has been dubbed in 30 languages which aired in 45 countries.[7] As of 2023, both theCrayon Shin-Chan andNew Crayon Shin-Chan series has over 148 million copies in circulation, making it among thebest-selling manga series in history.
Train in special Crayon Shin-chan vinyl wrapping livery atKurihashi Station, Japan
Set in the city ofKasukabe inSaitama Prefecture within theGreater Tokyo Area of Japan, the series follows the adventures of the five-year-old Shinnosuke "Shin" Nohara and his parents, baby sister, dog, neighbours, and best friends. Most of the plot is about Shin-chan's daily life, but it is often interspersed with fantastic and incredible elements.
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 behaviour. Consequently, non-Japanese readers and some viewers may find it difficult to understand his jokes. Some gags may require an understanding of Japanese culture and/or language to be fully appreciated; for example, his "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). But after modest translation, it is popular in the rest of Asia due to cultural compatibility. It also contains many sarcastic jokes and stereotype humour.
The series is mainly of comedy style with a lot ofsexual innuendo, leading to parents forbidding their children to watch it. However, due to its popularity, it's also stylistically as family-friendly as possible, although it may not apply everywhere. Most episodes are about the importance of family and friends. On rare occasions, it also has some darker episodes like Miss Matsuzaka's boyfriend dying in the manga, though it was not adapted into an anime episode. It also includes several horror adaptations, for example "The Line of no End", "The Horrible Elevator" and "The Kindergarten Stairs".
Abnormal for his age, Shin-chan regularly becomes besotted with pretty female characters in skimpy clothing who are much older than him, and an additional source of humour is derived from his childlike attempts atflirting with these characters, such as by asking them (inappropriately, on several levels) "Do you like green peppers?" (ピーマン好き?) (because he hates green peppers so much). He continually displays a lack of tact when talking to adults, asking questions such as "Why can't you cook?" to his friend's mom or "How old are you?" to elderly people.
Crayon Shin-chan, written and illustrated byYoshito Usui, debuted inFutabasha'sseinen manga magazineWeekly Manga Action in 1990. It started as a spin-off of the character Shinnosuke Nikaido (二階堂信之介) of another series by Yoshito Usui, Darakuya Store Monogatari (だらくやストア物語). The chapters were collected into 50tankōbon volumes, which were published under Futabasha'sAction Comics imprint, from April 11, 1992, to July 10, 2010.[8][9]
Yoshito Usui died on September 11, 2009, after a fall at Mount Arafune. After Usui died,Futabasha originally planned to endCrayon 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.[10] 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,[6] titledNew Crayon Shin-chan (新クレヨンしんちゃん,Shin Kureyon Shin-chan). This manga moved to a dedicated website after the magazine it was serialized in ended publication in late 2023.[5]
A series of four bilingual Japanese-English manga were released in 1996 in Japan asShin-chan: The Little Horror! (クレヨンしんちゃんの楽しいゾ英会話).[11]
ComicsOne translated ten volumes of Crayon Shin-chan intoEnglish and released it in theUnited States of America. Occasionalpop culture references familiar to Americans, such asPokémon andBritney Spears, were added to increase the appeal to American audiences. The manga is mirrored from its original to read from left to right.[12] Starting with the sixth volume, many of the names were changed to the ones used in the Vitello and Phuuz English version of the anime, even though the dub never aired in North America. This translation is rated Teen.[13]
Since then, American publisherDrMaster took over the licenses of several manga series, includingCrayon Shin-chan, from ComicsOne. No new volumes ofCrayon Shin-chan were released under the DrMaster imprint.
On July 28, 2007, DC Comics' manga divisionCMX 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, dirty 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, which is a reprint of the CMX version, in an omnibus format.[14] Three omnibus volumes were released simultaneously on October 15, 2012. Volume 4 was released on November 13, 2013, and included the Japanese volume 12, marking the first time that particular volume has an English translation.
The Crayon Shin-chan manga spin-off, Action Mask, is currently available as read-only/print-only subscription fromCrunchyroll and Futabasha.[15] The main Shin-chan manga is also available from Crunchyroll using the CMX version, concurrently up to volume 10.[16]
An anime adaptation ofCrayon Shin-chan, produced byShin-Ei Animation, has aired in Japan onTV Asahi since April 13, 1992. The series was originally directed byMitsuru Hongo from 1992 to 1996, and was replaced byKeiichi Hara from 1996 to 2004. Since 2004, the series is directed by Yuji Muto. The music in the series is composed byToshiyuki Arakawa. The series was originally going to end in 1994 and have its time-slot replaced by a remake ofUmeboshi Denka. However, because the series was a huge hit on TV Asahi, the network decided not to replace it.[17]
An English subtitled version ofCrayon Shin-chan ran onKIKU inHawaii from December 18, 1993, until December 2001[18] when Lacey Entertainment acquired the rights. The episodes were translated by Karlton Tomomitsu.[19]
A Spin-offSHIN-MEN which is set in a parallel world consists of 13 episodes aired from November 26, 2010, to September 14, 2012.[20]
Another spin-off series calledCrayon Shin-chan Gaiden consisting of four volumes is exclusively streaming onAmazon Prime Video worldwide with English, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese subtitles.[21][22][23]
An anime spin-off series titledSuper Shiro was announced on February 3, 2019.[24] The spin-off focuses on Shin-chan's dog Shiro.[25] The series was directed byMasaaki Yuasa and animated atScience SARU. Kimiko Ueno handled series composition, whileTomohisa Shimoyama served as chief director.TV Asahi,Shin-Ei Animation, ADK EM, andFutabasha produced the anime.[26] The series ran for 48 episodes, with each episode being five minutes long.[27] The series premiered on October 14, 2019, onAbemaTV.[28] An English dub premiered onCartoon Network in Australia and Southeast Asia.[29]
On 23 November 2018,Arashi memberMasaki Aiba appeared as his character Tatsuya Kōenji, from dramaBoku to Shippo to Kagurazaka, in a short at the end of episode 983, calledOra to Shippo to Kagurazaka dazo, where he examines Shinnosuke's dog at the veterinary clinic.[32][33]
In 2003,Phuuz entertainment inc. was commissioned by Lacey Entertainment and TV Asahi to continue in a similar style as the Vitello dub. But their episodes featured a new cast of voice artists (among othersDiane Michelle,Julie Maddalena, Peter Doyle).
52 episodes have been produced of the Vitello dub and52 episodes of the Phuuz dub. Vitello and Phuuz episodes lasted on an average 21 minutes and contained three segments of 5 to 7 minutes. Some of the dubs of the series used the Vitello dub as the source for the dubbing. Some dubs also dubbed the Phuuz dub afterwards.
Funimation (nowCrunchyroll, LLC) acquired the Shin-chan North America license in 2006.[35] As per all international licenses for the series, TV Asahi remained a licensing partner for North America.
Funimation's version features aTexas-based cast of voice actors. Funimation's dub takes many liberties with the source material and was heavily Americanized. Similar to the Vitello dub, episodes of the series were dubbed out of their original order, and segments were reordered. Additionally, many characters had their names changed to American-sounding ones. Many sexual references, dark humor, and references to current popular American culture were added. For example, in one scene, Ai and Penny argue over which one of them isJessica Simpson (whose first album was not released until 1999) and which one isAshlee Simpson (whose first album was not released until 2004), which is very different from the original Japanese script that dealt with many social issues within Japan at the time. At least two episodes referenceRudy Giuliani and his unsuccessful bid for president.
New, previously non-existent backstories were created, as well as significantly different personalities for the characters. For instance, the unseen father of Nene (known in the dub as "Penny") was suggested to be physically abusive toward both his wife and daughter, and this was used as a source of black humor. Principal Enchou was rewritten as a half-Peruvian, half-Romani man with a complicated prior life that includes a stint as a magician, in which he accidentally injured scores of audience members. Ageo-sensei (known in the dub as "Miss Polly"), Shinnosuke's teacher, was rewritten as a kinkynymphomaniac, while Shin's schoolmate, Kazama, (known in the dub as "Georgie") was portrayed as a hawkish youngRepublican.
The first 52 episodes of the dub aired onAdult Swim.All three seasons, 26 episodes per season, have also been released on DVD. Season 3, released in 2011, culminated in the official finale, effectively ending the Funimation series.[36][37][38][39]
On August 9, 2025, it was announced the FUNimation English dub will be released on Blu-ray byDiscotek Media.[40]
A fourth English dub of Crayon Shin-chan has been produced in Hong Kong by Red Angel Media in 2015[41] and was commissioned by LUK Internacional, the company that produces the Spanish, Portuguese, the second Italian and the second French dubs of Crayon Shin-chan and commissioned theDoraemon dub that aired on Boomerang UK. The dub was translated from LUK Internacional's Spanish dub, which is close to the Japanese original and has no censorship. The first three volumes of the dub were released in the European and South AfricanNintendo 3DS eShop on December 22, 2016,[42] and the fourth and fifth volumes were released on December 29, 2016.[43] The dub is separated into five volumes, with the first volume being free while the other four cost €1.99/£1.79. The first volume contains two episodes while the other four contain 6 episodes each which makes26 episodes in total.[44][45][46][47][48]
InIndia,Hindi dubs of the anime started airing onHungama TV on June 19, 2006. Later, it also began airing inTamil andTelugu dubs.[49] In 2024,Sony YAY! also started airing the Hindi dub, also providing dubbed versions inBengali, Tamil & Telugu.[50] As of September 2025, all films have been dubbed in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu, and have aired onHungama TV andSony YAY!.
In thePhilippines,IBC 13 aired a Filipino dub of the anime in the early 2000s with Shinnosuke being voiced by Filipino rapperAndrew E.
"Dōbutsuen wa Taihen da" (動物園は大変だ; "The Zoo Is a Nightmare") Lyricist:Yoshito Usui / Composer:Tetsurō Oda / Arranger: Masao Akashi / Singers: TUNE'S Episode Range: 1–21 (SPECIAL 1 ending theme)
"Yume no END wa Itsumo Mezamashi!" (夢のENDはいつも目覚まし!; "The End of a Dream Is Always an Eye-Opener!") Lyricist: Daiko Nagato / Composer: Tetsurō Oda / Arranger: Takeshi Hayama / Singers:B.B. Queens Episode Range: 22–57
"Ora wa Ninki Mono" (オラはにんきもの; "I Am Super Popular") Lyricist: Reo Rinozuka / Composer: Yasuo Kosugi / Arranger: Michiaki Kato / Singer: Shinnosuke Nohara (Akiko Yajima) and Misae Nohara (Miki Narahashi) Episode Range: SPECIAL 3–161 (First used as the opening theme for SPECIAL 2, and was used as the ending theme for episode 776)
"Pakappo de GO!" (パカッポでGO!; "Let's Go with Pakappo!") Lyricist: Poem-dan / Composer/Arranger:Takashi Kimura / Singer: Shinnosuke Nohara (Akiko Yajima) Episode Range: 162–SPECIAL 13 (Also used as the opening theme forCrayon Shin-chan: Great Adventure in Henderland)
"Nenjū Muchū 'I want you'" (年中夢中"I want you"; "All Year Through Crazy for You - 'I Want You'") Lyricist: C's / Composer/Arranger: Satoru Sugawara / Singer: Puppy Episode Range: 203–SPECIAL 20
"Dame Dame no Uta" (ダメダメのうた; "The Song of No's") Lyricist/Composer: LADY Q / Arranger: Toshiya Mori / Singers: LADY Q and Shinnosuke Nohara (Akiko Yajima) and Misae Nohara (Miki Narahashi) Episode Range: 353–458
"Shinchan Ondo ~Ora to Issho ni Odorou yo!~" (しんちゃん音頭~オラといっしょにおどろうよ!~; "Shin-chan Ondo ~Dance with Me!~") Lyricist: Moichi Kato / Composers: Ozutairiku and Yasuhiko Hoshino / Arrangers: Daisaku Kume and Kiyohiko Semba / Singers:Haruo Minami and Shinnosuke Nohara (Akiko Yajima) Episode Range: 193–SPECIAL 13
"BOYS BE BRAVE ~Shōnen yo Yūki o Mote~" (BOYS BE BRAVE~少年よ勇気を持て~; "Boys Be Brave") Lyricists: Aki Okui and Lemon Saito / Composer/Singer: Aki Okui / Arranger: Akitoshi Onodera Episode Range: 203–SPECIAL 17
"Tsukiakari Funwari Ochitekuru Yoru" (月灯りふんわり落ちてくる夜; "The Night of Gently Falling Moonlight") Lyricist/Composer/Arranger: RYUZI / Singer: Nanase Ogawa Episode Range: 249–297
"Sukisuki My Girl" (スキスキ♡マイガール,Sukisuki ♡ Mai Gāru; "I Love My Girl") Lyricist/Composer: KAORU / Arrangers: Tsuyoshi Yamanaka and L'luvia / Singers:L'luvia Episode Range: 298–352
"Kyō wa Date" (今日はデート,Kyō wa Dēto; "Today I've Got a Date") Lyricist/Composer: Ke-chan / Singer: Kamaboko Episode Range: 353–397
"Zentaiteki ni Daisuki desu." (全体的に大好きです。; "I Love All of You.") Lyricist/Composer:Tsunku / Arrangers: Yuichi Takahashi and Tsunku / Singers: Sheki-Dol Episode Range: 398–SPECIAL 33
"Mama to no Oyakusoku Jōkō no Uta" (ママとのお約束条項の歌; "The Song of My Contract with My Mother") Lyricists:Yoshito Usui and Yuri Asada / Composer: Yasuo Kosugi / Arranger: Hideo Saito / Singers: Shinnosuke Nohara (Akiko Yajima) and Misae Nohara (Miki Narahashi) Episode Range: 452–SPECIAL 38・SPECIAL 43
"Ari no Uta" (ありの歌; "The Ant Song") Lyricist/Composer: Rio / Arranger: Papa Daisuke / Singers: Yanawarabaa Episode Range: 509–SPECIAL 46
Footage from Japanese opening 8 ("PLEASURE") but with completely different lyrics, to the melody of a techno remix of Japanese opening 3 ("Ora wa Ninkimono"). Musical Director, Producer and English Director: World Worm Studios composerGary Gibbons
Footage from Japanese ending 3 ("DO-shite") and at the end (only in the first 11 episodes) Japanese opening 9 ("Yuruyuru de DE-O!") but with completely different lyrics to the melody of "DO-shite". Musical Director, Producer and English Director: World Worm Studios composerGary Gibbons
As of 2015, the original run of theCrayon Shin-chan manga has sold over 55 million copies, while theNew Crayon Shin-chan manga has sold over 3 million copies, surpassing 58 million copies between both, making it one of thebest-selling manga series.[82] Including game books, encyclopedic books and other related material, the figure amounts to 148 million.[83] As of 2023, both theCrayon Shin-Chan andNew Crayon Shin-Chan series had over 148 million copies in circulation.[84] As of March 2021[update], Bandai Namco has sold227.02 millionCrayon Shin-chan Chocobi food packs.[85]
AHindi dub of the anime has aired onHungama TV in India since June 19, 2006.[86] There were complaints from parents over the main character's behavior and the attitudes exhibited towards elders on the show, both of which were seen as a negative influence on children.[87] The series was banned in October 2008 by theIndian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on account of heavy nudity.[88] After many requests from fans, the show returned to Hungama TV in 2009, albeit censored; scenes containing nudity were cut, and there were several changes to the dialogue to removeadult humor and better appeal toIndian culture.[89]
APortuguese dub of the anime has also aired onBiggs, with the segment of the 165th episode "Dad's Hospitalized Life" causing major controversy in December 2016, due to a scene where the nurses examine Shinnosuke's anus, and compliment it, all while he acts and looks uncomfortable. Due to complaints from parents over concerns that the show was promotingsoftcorechild pornography, the Portuguese Media Regulatory Authority ordered that the show should only be aired after 10:30 PM.[90] Eventually, the show was slowly faded out of Biggs' schedule, and from Portuguese television. Later, the show returned to television through Portugal'sFox Comedy in June 2021,[91] though on a limited run, with the show being removed from Fox Comedy Portugal after a few months.
The same episode would later be uploaded to the officially runYouTube channel for the series' Portuguese dub, with the controversial scene completely cut out.
Regulators from Indonesia, Vietnam and South Korea have also described the show as 'borderline pornography'.[92]
Grigsby, Mary (1999). "The social production of gender as reflected in two Japanese culture industry products:Sailor Moon and Crayon Shin-chan". In Lent, John A. (ed.).Themes and issues in Asian cartooning: cute, cheap and mad. Bowling Green State University Popular Press. pp. 183–210.ISBN978-0-87972-779-6.