Sazae-san

Sazae-san
Cover of the eleventh volume of the manga, depicting the lead character, Sazae, riding a horse with her little sister, Wakame.
サザエさん
Genre	Comedy
Manga
Written by	Machiko Hasegawa
Published by	Asahi Shinbun
English publisher	Kodansha Bilingual Comics
Magazine	Fukunichi Shinbun Asahi Shinbun, etc.
Original run	April 22, 1946 – February 21, 1974
Volumes	45 (approx. 10,000 comic strips)
Anime television series
Studio	TCJ (later Eiken)
Original network	Fuji Television
Original run	October 5, 1969 – present
Episodes	7500+

Sazae-san (サザエさん^?) is a Japanese yonkoma manga series written and illustrated by Machiko Hasegawa. It was first published in Hasegawa's local paper, the Fukunichi Shinbun (フクニチ新聞^?), on April 22, 1946. When the Asahi Shinbun wished to have Hasegawa draw the four-panel comic for their paper, she moved to Tokyo in 1949 with the explanation that the main characters had moved from Kyūshū to Tokyo as well. The manga dealt with contemporary situations in Tokyo until Hasegawa retired and ended the series on February 21, 1974.

Sazae-san won the 8th Bungeishunjū Manga Award in 1962. A television anime adaptation by TCJ, and later Eiken, began airing in Japan in October 1969 and holds the Guinness World Record for the longest running animated television series.

In the beginning, Sazae was more interested in being herself than dressing up in kimono and makeup to attract her future husband. Hasegawa was forward-thinking in that, in her words, the Isono/Fuguta clan would embody the image of the modern Japanese family after World War II.

Sazae was a very "liberated" woman, and many of the early plotlines revolved around Sazae bossing around her husband, to the consternation of her neighbors, who believed that a man should be the head of his household. Later, Sazae became a feminist and was involved in many comical situations regarding her affiliation with her local women's lib group.