町一番のけちんぼう

まちいちばんのけちんぼう

Aired: 1978

A TV-special anime produced by Topcraft, a standalone work broadcast on Christmas Eve by Asahi Broadcasting on the TV Asahi network. Based on Dickens's A Christmas Carol, it tells of the town's stingiest and coldest miser, an old man who on Christmas night meets spirits that show him the past, present, and future, repents his greedy way of life, and recovers his heart. Planned as the first installment of a special anime slot broadcast every Christmas, it warmly depicts a musical-style production and a fable-like moral. It is a forerunner of seasonal-special anime cherished as a year-end tradition.