is a Japanese

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

series created by Rin Inumaru, produced by NHK Enterprises, and animated by

Gallop The canter and gallop are variations on the fastest gait that can be performed by a horse or other equine. The canter is a controlled three-beat gait, while the gallop is a faster, four-beat variation of the same gait. It is a natural gait pos ...

. The series has aired on NHK E-Tele since October 1998, making it the second longest-running anime on NHK behind '' Nintama Rantaro'', and the third longest-running anime series to date. The series focuses on a 5-year-old

Heian-era The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...

prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...

named Ojarumaru Sakanoue who accidentally time-warps to modern Japan and has adventures there while dodging a trio of young

oni An is a kind of ''yōkai'', demon, orc, ogre, or troll in Japanese folklore. Oni are mostly known for their fierce and evil nature manifested in their propensity for murder and cannibalism. Notwithstanding their evil reputation, oni possess ...

who try to get back a scepter that he stole from Great King Enma. The series has been dubbed in many languages. It was the first NHK anime series to be animated using the digital ink-and-paint process instead of cels. It received an "Excellence Award" for animation at the 1999

Japan Media Arts Festival The Japan Media Arts Festival is an annual festival held since 1997 by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs. The festival begins with an open competition and culminates with the awarding of several prizes and an exhibition. Based on judging by a ...

Premise

Around 1,000 years ago in Fairy World (妖精界 ''Yōsei-kai'') in the

Heian era The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...

, a young prince from a noble family named Ojarumaru Sakanoue is bored of his life of privilege. He is later lured into Enma World (エンマ界 ''Enma-kai'') by the sound of a ukulele played by Great King Enma. Upon arriving, he steals Great King Enma's powerful scepter, which he uses in order to judge the dead. While getting chased by Great King Enma, he accidentally falls into the Moon Hole (月の穴 ''Tsuki no Ana''), which time-warps him to modern Japan via the Full Moon Road (満月ロード ''Mangetsu Rōdo''). The furious Great King Enma sends his three adopted oni children, Aobei, Kisuke, and Akane, who are known as the "Little Child Trio" (子鬼トリオ ''Kooni Trio''), to pursue Ojarumaru and get the scepter back. At the present time, Ojarumaru falls from the moon to the roof of Sakata Apartment (坂田マンション ''Sakata Manshon'') where he befriends a boy named Kazuma Tamura and his grandfather Tommy. Fascinated with the prince, Tommy helps Kazuma convince his parents Ai and Makoto into letting Ojarumaru stay with the family, to which they accept. Denbo, Ojarumaru's anthropomorphic firefly caretaker who witnessed the latter falling into the Moon Hole, eventually finds and takes care of him at the request of his parents. While making many new friends and rivals, as well as dodging the Oni Child Trio's efforts to retrieve the scepter, Ojarumaru has many adventures in Moonlight Town (月光町 ''Gekkō-chō'') and encounters new things he has never seen before in his time period. Later episodes tend to center around other characters, including Princess Okame, Ojarumaru's young fiancé who desperately tries to win over his heart; Okorinbō and Nikorinbō, two anthropomorphic

komainu , often called lion-dogs in English, are statue pairs of lion-like creatures either guarding the entrance or the ''honden'', or inner shrine of many Japanese Shinto shrines or kept inside the inner shrine itself, where they are not visible to the ...

who try numerous get-rich-quick methods in a bid to get their

shinto shrine A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more ''kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion. Overview Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings. The '' honden''Also called (本殿, meani ...

out of poverty; Ken, a

freeter In Japan, a is a person who is unemployed or lacks full-time employment, excluding housewives and students. Freeters average 15 to 34 years of age. Freeters may also be described as '' underemployed''. These people do not start a career after ...

who keeps changing jobs; Kazuma's classmates, big eater Kintarō Sakata, beauty-obsessed Komachi Ono, and the judgmental but well-intentioned Kentarō Iwashimizu; Icchoku Honda, Kazuma's energetic homeroom teacher; the Hoshino Family, three aliens from another planet who want to invade earth and have a strange aversion to Ojarumaru; and Sachiyo Usui, an eccentric manga artist who is notorious for her creepy, highly detailed drawings. Some episodes place the characters in parodies of notable fairy tales, fables, novels, and TV shows from Japan and other countries. These include

Momotarō is a popular hero of Japanese folklore. His name is often translated as ''Peach Boy'', but is directly translated as ''Peach + Tarō'', a common Japanese given name. ''Momotarō'' is also the title of various books, films and other works that p ...

Cinderella "Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...

, '' Ikkyū-san'', ''

Journey to the West ''Journey to the West'' () is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng'en. It is regarded as one of the greatest Classic Chinese Novels, and has been described as arguably the most popu ...

'', '' Columbo'',

Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and Puer aeternus, never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending ...

, ''

The Boy Who Cried Wolf The Boy Who Cried Wolf is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 210 in the Perry Index. From it is derived the English idiom "to cry wolf", defined as "to give a false alarm" in e''Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable'' and glossed by the ''Oxford ...

'', '' Attack on Titan'' and

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

Broadcast

Seven television specials have aired on NHK E-Tele. The first special entitled aired on January 1, 2000. The second special entitled aired on May 3, 2007. The third special entitled aired on March 20, 2012. The fourth special entitled aired on August 14, 2015. The fifth special entitled aired in 2 parts on November 1 and 2, 2017. The sixth special entitled aired on November 3, 2017. The seventh special was scheduled to premiere on March 28, 2022, and was later delayed to March 30 due to a high school baseball tournament preempting the special's initial 9:00 AM timeslot on March 28. The series has aired daily on

Kids Station Kids Station ( Japanese: キッズステーション, ''Kizzu Sutēshon'') is a Japanese children's television channel showing anime and other cartoon material. Kids Station also airs some anime aimed at teens and adults during the night, such as '' ...

since November 5, 2018.

Soundtrack

Opening Themes

Ending Themes

Other media

Manga

A manga adaptation of the anime series, written and illustrated by

Tatsuma Ejiri is a Japanese manga artist from Kyoto Prefecture. After graduating from Kanazawa University he worked as a manga assistant for, among others, Eiichiro Oda and Jin Kobayashi. His first professionally published work was ''CHILDS'' published i ...

, was serialized in

Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...

's ''

Saikyo Jump Saikyo may refer to: *Saikyō Line, a Japanese railway line in the Tokyo metropolitan area *''Saikyō Maru'', a Japanese ship involved in the Battle of the Yalu River (1894) *Western Capital (disambiguation) ( ja, links=no, 西京, Saikyō), seve ...

'' magazine from January 2012 to September 2014. The first and only

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

volume, which compiles select stories from the ''Saikyo Jump'' serialization, was published in Japan on July 4, 2014.

Video games

Notes

References

External links

Official anime website

NHK Anime World ''Ojarumaru''

Enoki Films ''Prince Mackaroo'' Website
*
''Ojarumaru''
via

's official website
''Ojarumaru'' nep NHK Enterprises Character Page

Peril at the Full Moon Road ~A 'Rare' Adventure of Our Prince~ Official site

{{Gallop (studio) 1998 anime television series debuts 1998 Japanese television series debuts 2000 anime films 2007 anime films 2012 manga 2012 anime films Gallop (studio) Anime television films Fantasy anime and manga Fictional princes NHK original programming