Shin Dokonjo Gaeru

しん・どこんじょうがえる

Aired: 1981 - 1982

A television anime produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha (now TMS Entertainment) and broadcast on Nippon Television. A 1981 reboot of Yasumi Yoshizawa's beloved gag manga 'Dokonjo Gaeru' (originally serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump), following the original 1972 anime adaptation. The premise remains the same: middle-school boy Hiroshi accidentally squishes a green frog under his shirt, only for the now flattened-but-still-alive Pyonkichi to live on the front of that shirt and become his inseparable companion. Built around the comedic interplay of Hiroshi, his crush Kyoko, the local bully Gorai-imo, friend Goro, and teacher Machida-sensei, Shin Dokonjo Gaeru reimagines the original's working-class comedy for the new decade, complete with an opening theme by the up-and-coming comedy duo Tunnels - lending the show a distinctly early-80s pop flavor while preserving the warmth and humor of Yoshizawa's source material.