A cheeky five-year-old boy, Shin Chan Nohara, got up to all sorts of mischief with his friends’ gang in the Japanese neighbourhood of Kasukabe, taking along Indian Gen-Zers glued to their screens throughout the 2000s and 2010s. With the new movie Shin Chan: The Spicy Kasukabe Dancers in India, releasing across Indian cities in Japanese, Tamil, Hindi, and Telugu on September 26, the show and its characters are set to come closer to Indian fans than ever before. For many who grew up watching the show, this is a thrilling moment, as 22-year old data analyst Akhilesh Srinivasallu says, “The kid inme is happy because Shin Chan was one of the first anime I watched growing up. From the food to the places, anime always makes everything look beautiful – I’m excited to see how they show India.”
*Keeping it real
Like Srinivasallu , for many fans, the show was their first look into Japan, a country and culture that felt far away, but the show made it seem close. The Nohara family’s dynamic, which was loving but had plenty of squabbles,childish mischief, and recurring gags, is what has stayed with English master’s student, Anush KMS. “When I thought of Japan, it was of people living a very different life, far from mine. But in Shin Chan, I loved the family’s dynamic and their inside jokes. Especially with the mother (Mitsy Nohara) and father (Harry Nohara) – I could see my own family in them.” Reshma Syed, a recent graduate, adds, “Cartoons like Doraemon and Chota Bheem had some gadgetsor superpowers, but ShinChan was more realistic and his humour was relatable.”
Undergraduate student Aanya Singh notes that Shin Chan’s irreverent humour sometimes rubbed parentsthe wrong way, with the boy often asking blunt questions like ‘Why don’t you have a boyfriend’ to his kindergarten teacher. "A lot of parents used tosay ‘Don’t watch Shin Chan, he’s very badtameez (bad mannered)’ but I don’t see it, it’s just satire. That may be why Gen Z loves him – he has that defiance and he’s rude but in a funny way,” says Singh.
*More than funny
While the show found its laughs in Shin Chan’s daily antics, the movies are a different ballgame altogether, often showing the Nohara family and Kasukabe defence group (Shin Chan’s friends) in fantastical situations. Popular ones, dubbed in Indian regional languages, saw the kids fighting to save a secret sauce from a group that wanted to eradicate street food from Japan, another saw Shin Chan’s little sister kidnapped by an alien planet and crowned its princess, one saw them discover an ancient kingdom, and yet another saw Shin Chan time travel to save his future self ’s life. “I just keep re-watching them whenever I’m down,” says Singh, adding, “ They’re hilarious, but at the sametime, the movies are well made and nuanced. There’s something really sad or moving at the core.” While kids may miss underlying themes, several Shin Chan films grapple with issues in Japanese society – 'Crayon Shin-chan: Super-Dimension! The Storm Called My Bride', for example, dealt with the pressure young people face to get married and the immense power conglomerates hold in Japan. “As an adult, I’ve realised how layered Shin Chan is – the way the family deals with financial situations, the relationship between the mom and dad, the dad stuck in corporate culture, the teachers and their problems. It deals with the real world in a satirical way,” says Srinivasallu. While seeing their beloved childhood characters come to India has excited many, some are cautious.“The dubbing in Indian languages made a lot of difference.When I watched it in Tamil as a child, I loved how they made Shin Chan, a foreign character, sound like a Tamil boy you could be friends with. I hope the film doesn’t try to show just one, north Indian side of India,” says Anush. Srinivasallu adds, “The train sequence in the trailer excited me, and I’m curious to see how many picturesque locations and songs they’ve included. I don’t expect any crazy plot line, but I hope there aren’t a lot of typical Indian stereotypes."