Jarinko Chie

じゃりんこちえ

Aired: 1981 - 1983

A television anime produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha (now TMS Entertainment) and broadcast on Mainichi Broadcasting System / TBS affiliates. A heartfelt comedy adaptation of Etsumi Haruki's beloved manga 'Jarinko Chie,' picking up from director Isao Takahata's acclaimed 1981 theatrical film. Set in the rough-and-tumble Nishinari district of working-class Osaka, the series follows Chie Takemoto, the impossibly responsible elementary-school daughter of Tetsu - a hopeless gambler-and-drunkard father widely described as 'the worst dad in Japan' - as she single-handedly runs the family's offal-grill restaurant while her absent mother Yoshie stays away. The vivid Osaka-dialect dialogue, eccentric neighborhood ensemble (Grandma, Old Hira, the cat Antonio Jr., the boy Kotetsu and many more), and lovingly observed details of downtown Osaka 'horumon' food culture combine into a tragicomic celebration of working-class life that brought authentic Kansai sensibility to a nationwide audience.