Kiko-chan's Smile

Kiko-chan's Smile
きこちゃんすまいる
(Kikochan Sumairu)
Genre Comedy, Adventure
Manga
Written by Tsubasa Nunoura
Published by Kodansha
Demographic Josei
Original run 19962001
Volumes 5
TV anime
Directed by Setsuko Shibuichi
Studio Eiken
Network TBS
Original run 1996-10-051997-09-27[1]
Episodes 51
Anime and Manga Portal

Kiko-chan's Smile (きこちゃんすまいる Kikochan Sumairu?) is an anime and manga series about a kindergarten student who has many of the features of a child prodigy but at the same time displays many bizarre habits and an odd personality.

Contents

Characters

Kiko Himemaya
Voiced by: Satsuki Yukino
Kiko is a four-year-old girl who attends a private kindergarten in Tokyo. She is capable of doing many things most four-year-olds are not capable of; these include cooking, unassisted grocery shopping, limited acrobatics. Despite the title of the series, it is very rare to actually see Kiko smile and almost as rare for her to speak. Despite this, Kiko is quite popular with her classmates. She also has a wide variety of interests, including ballet, learning English, playing video games and interfering with her teacher's love life.
Mama and Papa
Voiced by: Yumi Takada (Mama) and Voiced by: Mitsuru Miyamoto (Papa)
Kiko's parents. Papa is a salaryman, Mama is a housewife, and both find their daughter a source of much puzzlement and frustration. Still they are devoted parents.
Megumi-sensei
Voiced by: Yuko Mizutani
Kiko's kindergarten teacher. She is twenty years old, and this is her first job out of teaching college. Kiko's eccentricities nearly make it her last, but Kiko is fond of her and turns her happiness into a personal project. Kiko also interferes with her love life, and helped her to find a boyfriend whom she married in the last episode. She hates carrots, to the point of fainting when she sees one. But carrots are her boyfriend's family's favourite food, so she often had to ask Kiko for help on the dates. She is extremely careless, even losing her wedding ring.
Neko-chan or Tenshi
Voiced by: Kousuke Okano
An angel who has come to Earth in the form of a black cat on a mission to spread happiness throughout the world. Unfortunately he is unable to communicate with humans (who hear his speech as cat noises), and even more unfortunately for him Kiko adopts him. Even more problematically, he falls hopelessly in love with a vain female cat named Rosa, who eventually reciprocates his affection long enough to bear a litter of five kittens, who she leaves to his (and, without her knowledge, Kiko's) care.
Neko-chan's litter
They're named 'pa','pi','pu','pe',and 'po' by Kiko. They are also angels, and they are able to use supernatural powers. Like normal kittens, they are mischievous and energetic, and they proved themselves to be smarter than Neko-chan, such as the time when Kiko wanted a hippo, Neko-chan went to Africa by holding onto a plane, while the kittens just went to the local zoo. They like chocolate and are able to sing.

Trivia

Kiko's name and the title of the series are a pun on the Japanese Royal Family.

Anime Staff

References

  1. ^ Kiko-chan's Smile Official site by Eiken (anime studio), retrieved on 2007-08-28(Japanese)

3. http://www.technogirls.org/technogirls/kikochan.htm