Quick, what’s the most popular anime ever? It’s not One Piece, and it’s not Dragon Ball Z, and it’s not even Pokemon. It’s Sazae-san, the feel-good story of the Isono and Fuguta families, who live together in a large house in Tokyo. Broadcasting weekly since 1969, yesterday the series celebrated its 50th anniversary of broadcast with a special celebratory episode. It’s not only the longest-running anime, but it’s also the longest-running TV show in history, and is recognized by the Guinness Book for this.
You probably don’t know Sazae-san, as it’s not well-known outside of Japan because it never got any kind of international distribution, but I’ll give you a run-down on the show in this post!
Sazae-san’s Family
Basically, Sazae-san tells the story of two families who live in the same house, the Isono and Fuguta families. The star of the show is Sazae Fuguta, who lives in her parents’ home with her husband Masuo and their son Tara-chan, along with her younger brother Katsuo and younger sister Wakame, plus Sazae’s parents, Namihei and Fune. (Note: all the names are references to the sea.) There is a large number of other characters who come in and out of each episode, like Nakazawa-san, the girl who’s sweet on Katsuo, and Norisuke-san, a smooth-talking relative who’s always coming over to dinner. These characters are all as famous inside Japan as Charlie Brown and his friends are to you and me.
Sazae-san tells “slow stories” about a simpler time in Japan, when drama could be realized from a baseball breaking a neighbor’s window, or Sazae discovering a new shop selling stone-baked sweet potatoes and eating too many, causing her to fret about weight gain, or the family discovering an amazing device that automatically cracks eggs for you. There were no cell phones and no Internet, no news of citizens being kidnapped and spirited off to North Korea, no political intrigue or economic hard times. Every aspect of the show is designed to tap into the nostalgia of a bygone era.
Although the Isono/Fuguta family has come to define the postwar nuclear family for Japan in the same way Father Knows Best or Leave it to Beaver did for the U.S., the family isn’t completely average. When a man gets married and enters his wife’s home, it’s common for him to take her family name, in effect being adopted by his father-in-law. (In Evangelion, Gendo Rokubungi did this, taking his wife Yui’s family name of Ikari.) Because Masuo didn’t take his wife’s family name despite moving into her house, he showed what a bold and modern thinker he was. Those Japanese really know how to live on the edge!
The Appeal of Sazae-san
I watched Sazae-san with my wife and kids like clockwork every Sunday at 6:00 pm. It was a great way to wrap up the weekend and get the kids ready for school the next morning. The show was great for my kids because it provided the social connections for local Japanese society, while I added American influences with Dr. Seuss, Disney films and Schoolhouse Rock. Little did they know I was managing things to ensure our kids became naturally bilingual in English and Japanese, so they didn’t have to struggle with the two languages like my wife and I did.
Another benefit of Sazae-san is that everyone speaks proper Japanese, without any rude words that we don’t want them to use, which is why Crayon Shin-chan was always banned in our house. This is why a lot of students of Japanese choose to study with Sazae-san. You’ll learn a ton of well-grounded vocabulary words and no strange words that might show up in an isekai fighting anime.
Thanks to an odd quirk of the creator not wanting the anime distributed on home video, Sazae-san is very hard to watch outside of its TV slot on Sundays at 6 pm on Fuji TV, and Amazon Prime Japan, which has licensed some episodes. Happily, there are quite a few not-entirely-legit episodes up on YouTube you might browse. Good luck!
Sazae-san in the Future
Writing about Sazae-san, the most famous and longest-running anime in the world, though you’ve probably never seen an episode.
Nissin did one of their legendary updated cup ramen commercials showing when Masuo first started dating Sazae in high school. pic.twitter.com/0Niv75Ikym
— Peter Payne (@JListPeter) November 26, 2019
Although it’s been around for 50 years, Sazae is constantly being updated for modern viewers, like with the excellent live-action drama they showed on TV Sunday night, re-creating the familar house with a detailed set, and doing interesting things like the Nissin “Hungry Days” TV spot above.
Sazae-san has been on the air for longer than most reading this have been alive. In fitting fashion, it was the last animation of any kind to use painted cels before switching to digital coloring in 2015. Sazae-san will probably still be on TV when you or I go the way of the dodo. Thanks for all the wonderful times, Sazae-san!
