#7. Sazae-san

The clear precursor to Chibi Maruko-chan, and the longest running animated show in the world. Remember that when Fox tries to tell you any different. 1800+ episodes, beat that Matt Groening.

Machiko Hasegawa’s newspaper strip began in 1946 in a local newspaper, and ran until 1974. It’s the story of 27 year old Sazae-san, her husband Masuo, and the rest of Sazae’s family, her parents, her brother and sister and her son.

The anime version started in October 1969, and has been broadcast at 6.30 on a Sunday evening ever since. While the anime remains ignored in Anglophone countries, Kodansha Europe have produced dual language volumes of the manga, which can be picked up from Amazon for £2.99. There is also one episode of the series fansubbed here.

Here’s Sazae and family advertising some kind of new fangled music playing machine: