Monchhichi

Monchhichi
モンチッチ (Monchitchi)
Genre	Family
Anime television series
Monchhichi Twins
Directed by	Hiroshi Jinsenji
Studio	Ashi Productions
Original network	TV Tokyo
Original run	February 4, 1980 – August 1, 1980
Episodes	130

Monchhichi (モンチッチ, Monchitchi^?) is a line of Japanese stuffed toy monkeys from the Sekiguchi Corporation, first released in 1974. They were licensed by Mattel in the United States until 1985, and later distributed worldwide directly by Sekiguchi. Four television series were produced based on the characters: The Japanese anime series Monchhichi Twins (ふたごのモンチッチ, Futago no Monchhichi^?) in 1980, produced by Tokyo 12 Channel (now TV Tokyo), the American cartoon series Monchhichis in 1983, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, the French cartoon series Kiki, le Kiki de tous les Kiki in 2001, produced by Ben-J Productions, and Monchhichi (モンチッチ, Monchhichi^?) in 2005, by Kids Station.

The Monchhichi franchise is held by the Sekiguchi Corporation, a famous doll company, located in Tokyo, Japan. Monchhichi was created by Yoshiharu Washinoワシの良春 (わしの よしはる) on January 25, 1974, as an improvement to the already successful "Kuta Kuta Monkey" (くたくたモンキー (Exhausted monkey)). Sekiguchi claims they created these characters in order to inspire respect and love in the young (Japanese) children and adults, their name is derived from the words "Mon" which translates to "Mine" in French and "Chhichi" which closely resembles the sound a child's pacifier would produce according to Japanese phonetics, also the resulting word has a similar sound to the word "Monkey" in English.

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