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World's longest-running cartoon 'Sazae-san' to go digital

9 Comments

The world's longest-running cartoon is to go fully digital, its Japanese broadcaster said Friday, abandoning hand-drawn celluloid-based animation after a run of 44 years.

Fuji Television Network said episodes of "Sazae-san" aired from October would be produced entirely digitally. The move will mean there are no hand-drawn cartoons left on Japanese television, according to the Association of Japanese Animations.

Until the 1990s, many cartoons were created by artists working directly on celluloid, a painstaking process that meant characters had to be drawn in many different postures to give them impression of movement as the camera was repeatedly started and stopped.

Two decades ago, computer animations began to become widespread, slowly squeezing out the traditional method.

"Sazae-san", which first aired in 1969, revolves around the life of the title character, a cheerful but klutzy full-time housewife who lives with her parents, husband, son, brother and sister.

The 30-minute episodes, which can readily garner more than one-in-seven Sunday evening viewers, tend to focus on tiny incidents in the family's everyday life and are dotted with seasonal festivals.

"Doraemon", a Japanese cartoon about a robot cat from the future that has a following across Asia went entirely digital in 2002.

"Sazae-san", whose broadcast denotes the end of the weekend for many Japanese, began the switch in 2005.

© (C) 2013 AFP

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.


9 Comments
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Has anyone noticed the blatant "Buy Fukushima foods" drive that is going on in "Sazae san" at the moment?

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

I liked the books of the early Sazae San cartoon strips that were translated into English.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

While they're at it, why not stream earlier shows online for free? It'd likely be impossible to put them ALL up there, but still.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Good move !

1 ( +1 / -0 )

My 4 year old loves this show

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This does not surprise me given that most other Japanese animation studios had to switch to digital production when Fujifilm announced in the late 1990's they were phasing out production of the clear plastic sheets used for hand-drawn animation cels. Today, the final production work on "2-D" animation is all done on computer terminals; for example, all the animated shows on the American FOX broadcast network Sunday night schedule are all final produced using the "Boom Toon" animation software.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Sazae san first appeared in Japan on Yukan fukunichi in 1946 - 1 year after WW II The time we had only crayon and e-no-gu to learn Zu-ga in schools. Before that, there was norakuro. /So, Sazae san is still existing? Longer than Mickey Mouse. Digital manga now. Hope it will =bwe marketted in USA. There are Japanese merchandise stores in my area along with ///////////sushi restaurants,

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I know that digital is more efficient and cleaner, but I like the old hand-drawn animation. I hoped that Sazae-san would hold out, and be the longest-running hand-drawn cartoon. Oh well...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Ms Machiko Hasegawa had Apron Obasan beside Sazae-san. Then she began Ijiwaru Baasan Female then were ranked less than house pets. Bcause Sazaesan was full with curiosity and was amused by anything, After Asahi scouted sazaesan Mangas later, Asahi sales sky rocketted. Sazaesan brightened up girls then. In my middle school, stern fewmale PE teacher used to scold us, Don;t copy sazae san".

1 ( +2 / -1 )

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