This Anime Has Been Running for 55 Years and Broke Own Guinness Record

Nowadays, a good portion of the anime that airs in Japan also has an international release. Maybe not a simultaneous one, but they all eventually end up officially released internationally.

This is a huge change from a few decades ago. But there is one series that’s been airing for years in Japan, but apparently will hardly be released in the US. Furthermore, this anime is a decades-old hit which is featured in the Guinness World Records. It is called Sazae-san.

What Exactly is Sazae-san?

Sazae-san started as a yonkoma manga (short stories in four panels, usually with comedy tones) by Machiko Hasegawa in Japanese newspapers. It started in a local newspaper, but Hasegawa was later invited to write the strips for the Asahi Shimbum in Tokyo, and the stories were published daily from 1946 to 1974, when Hasegawa finally retired (unfortunately, she died in 1992). The manga was compiled into 68 volumes, with more than 6,000 strips.

Sazae-san comics were forward-thinking for its time. Sazae Fugata was not the typical housewife, she would boss around her husband, and she even became a feminist at one point. Her neighbors did not take this all very well, as Sazae would usually subvert gender role expectations. But despite these political tones, the strips are mainly lighthearted slice-of-life stories, and not dark commentaries on society.

The story was then adapted into animation. Sazae-san aired for the first time on October 5, 1969, in Fuji TV, and probably no one imagined what this animation would actually become.

More Than 2,700 Episodes Aired in Japan

Since 1969, Sazae-san has been airing new weekly episodes at the weekends. It is usually among the most-watched weekly anime on Japanese TV. What is behind such a successful series? Well, it is family entertainment. Parents and children get together to watch it on TV. It is actually big news when seasonal anime gets more views than this classic weekly entertainment.

Despite the strip’s political “tones”, Sazae-san has always tackled subjects lightly. And, actually, things turned from the original comics. The anime is seen today as a nostalgic picture of “older days”, and Sazae is now pretty much a regular housewife in a typical family. She might be a bit clumsy, but not exactly a feminist. She is, although, surely an icon of Japanese TV.

Sazae-san Took a Break Only Twice

Reruns only happened during tough times

This year marks the 55th anniversary of this anime, with over 2,700 episodes (and still counting!). You might be wondering if this series ever had a break, and it indeed did. But only twice, due to extreme circumstances. In 1975, amidst the oil crisis, Sazae-san reran episodes for a month. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they once again needed to rerun episodes. That’s huge for an animation with tight schedules.

Because of the milestone and the 55th anniversary, the Guinness World Records awared the series as the longest-running animation on TV, according to SoraNews. Which is a record Sazae-san beat itself (really, they now got the award for the second time). Guinness also awarded actress Midori Kato for voicing the same character (Sazae) ever since. Kato, who is now 85, had also previously received the same honour.

To summarise it, this is a story about the regular lives of regular people, as many sitcoms. The only difference is that Sazae-san is an “animated sitcom”. And you won’t want to ask your mom to change channels when she’s getting her decades-long Sunday animation entertainment in Japan.