Monica's Gang in the land of manga

Manga are a fever among the Japanese and ended up conquering the whole world and becoming popular mainly because of anime!

Now Brazilian comics that expand to Japan is more difficult isn't it?! But the situation was different in the case of the traditional Brazilian and most famous comics from Monica's Gang!

Throughout the text we will understand better about this partnership between Japan and Brazil in the world of comics and the extension that this can have. Let's start from the beginning folks!!

Brazilian Manga X HQ's

Here on the site there is already a complete article about the manga history, but basically the term manga came about in 1814, but it wasn't manga as we know it today.

The first official manga was only launched in 1902. And since then it has expanded all over the world and even in Brazil.

Brazil is in fourth place among the countries that consume the most manga in the world, behind only Indonesia, India and China.

In Brazil, the origin of comic books began with cartoons and caricatures in the 19th century.

The first comic book created in Brazil was published in the magazine Vida Fluminense, on January 30, 1869.

But the most traditional one aimed at children and teenagers is Turma da Mônica written by Maurício de Souza. The first publication was in 1959. Since then, the number of readers has only increased.

In 2008, the author Maurício de Souza launched Turma da Mônica Jovem with a manga style with the stories in black and white.

Monica's Gang in Japan?

In 1974, Oracio, one of the characters in the comic book, Tyrannosaurus Rex's offspring, had his stories published in Ichigo Shinbun. And also in April 1982.

Ichigo Shinbun is a children's newspaper produced by the company Sanrio. She created famous Japanese pop culture characters such as Hello Kitty.

In 2015 Maurício de Souza was in Japan for the Brazil Fair event, he took the opportunity to sign an agreement with the president of Sanrio, Shintaro Tsuji in Tokyo.

In addition to the stories of the gang in Japanese, they agreed to re-publish the stories of Orácio that had already been published before in the Japanese newspaper!

Monica's gang receives Japanese version - gkpb - advertising geek

Even in all these times Maurício and Tsuji are still partners and even friends.

Now they decided to expand this partnership even further with new projects and products.

Since 2018, the company has its own office in Tokyo.

The forecast is that in August 2021 the Japanese publishing market will start, which will debut with books, in print and digital format.

The forecast is also to release their own stories and also to count on the traditional Monica's Gang in Japanese, Monica's Gang Young and graphic novels.

On April 16, 2021, ''Monika e Furenzo'' (Monica and friends) was released and premiered on the Japanese Kids Station's Hapikura show.

Hits like Doraemon and Pokémon will share the schedule with this Brazilian gang.

Monica's Gang in the land of manga

The audience showed that the public liked this new Brazilian attraction. Even because Monica's Gang has characters that anyone can identify with, so it's capable of overcoming any barrier and uniting nations.

The characters did not change their name, only an adaptation was made to facilitate the sound taking into account the new language.

So Mônica became Monika, Cebolinha became Seboriinha, Cascão became Kasukon and Magali became Magari.

What I was most curious about was the character Cebolinha that in the Portuguese version changes the R to L. But in Japanese there is no difference between R and L so in the Asian version the character changes the S to SH and TSU to TYU.

Maurício celebrated the premiere of the animations in Japanese on April 29 and said on his official Twitter account that several episodes will be part of the fixed schedule of the series. japanese broadcaster.

Monica's Gang in the land of manga

The cast of 'Turma da Mônica' in Japan are:

  • Mônica - Misumi Arimura (‘March Comes in Like a Lion’);
  • Chives – Haruna Miyazawa ('City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eye');
  • Smudge – Tatsuya Tomizawa ('City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eye');
  • Magali - Natsuki Aikawa ('Naruto Shippuden').

There is also the Toy version of this group that airs on another Japanese broadcaster, TV Fuji, one of the largest in the country. In the programming, the characters dance with Naomi Watanabe known as the ''Beyoncé of Japan''. Maurício also commented on this on his social network.

Monica's Gang in the land of manga

Brazil and Japan: Ties of Friendship

In 2007, in celebration of the centenary of Japanese immigration in Brazil, the cartoonist Maurício de Souza was invited by the committee to create characters in celebration of this date.

The characters created were Keika and Tikara.

In 2020, the animation ''Bonds of friendship'' was released, about the thirty years of Brazilian immigration in Japan. Watch the Bonds of Friendship animation below:

One of the youngest members of Monica's Gang is Nimbus, a boy who represents Asians. He is inspired by one of Maurício's sons.

It is believed that the connection of the cartoonist Maurício de Souza with Japanese culture has been something since childhood, as there are reports that he made friends with people of Japanese descent and in his youth he married Alice Takeda, daughter of Japanese.

And the son who inspired the Asian character is the couple's son, Mauro Takeda e Souza, who has the same characteristics as his mother.

And what did you think of the Japanese version of Monica's Gang? What will come out of this partnership?

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