Little Pollon

Little Pollon
Memorial Box #01 DVD cover.
おちゃめ神物語コロコロポロン (Ochamegami Monogatari Korokoro Poron)
Manga
Written by	Hideo Azuma
Published by	Akita Shoten
Demographic	Shōjo
Magazine	Princess
Original run	1977 – 1979
Volumes	2
Anime television series
Directed by	Takao Yotsuji
Studio	Kokusai Eiga-sha
Original network	Fuji TV
Original run	May 8, 1982 – March 26, 1983
Episodes	46

Little Pollon (Japanese: おちゃめ神物語コロコロポロン, Hepburn: Ochamegami Monogatari Korokoro Polon^?, lit. The Story of Little Goddess Roly-Poly Pollon) is a musical Greek mythology-based Japanese anime television series, based on the 1977 manga Olympus no Pollon (Pollon of Olympus) by Hideo Azuma. The anime television series consisted of 46 episodes and aired across Japan on Fuji TV from May 1982 to March 1983, and was also popular in some European countries, such as Italy. The series is noted for its faithful portrayal of the Gods of Mount Olympus as fallible beings succumbing to real human faults and weaknesses, such as selfishness, temper tantrums, debauchery, laziness, and vanity.

The main character of the story is Pollon, a sweet, precocious little girl who is the daughter of the God of the Sun, Apollo. Pollon's goal in life is to grow up to become a beautiful and powerful goddess. She attempts to do good deeds and help out any way she can in order to achieve the status of godhood. Invariably, her overtures backfire and end up causing major trouble for both the gods of Olympus and their human subjects. However, Pollon's kind heart, perseverance and indomitable spirit win out in the end, as she attains the title of "Goddess of Hope."

In addition to its success in Japan, Little Pollon was an extremely popular television program in Italy during the mid-1980s, where it was known as C'era una volta... Pollon (Once upon a time there was... Pollon) and featured an Italian theme song by Cristina D'Avena. Many of the Pollon fan sites on the Internet are in Italian, and there are regular reruns of the anime. Azuma's original manga has also been published in the Italian market. The series was also broadcast in France on La Cinq in the late 1980s under the title La Petite Olympe et les Dieux, with Pollon's name changed to "Olympe."