Shinchan Manga

Synopsis:
Crayon Shin-chan follows the adventures of five-year-old Shinnosuke "Shin" Nohara and his parents, baby sister, dog, neighbours, and friends and is set in Kasukabe, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.
Many of the jokes in the series stem from Shin-chan's occasionally weird, unnatural and inappropriate use of language, as well as from his inappropriate behavior. Consequently, non-Japanese readers and viewers may find it difficult to understand his jokes. In fact, some of them cannot be translated into other languages. In Japanese, certain set phrases almost always accompany certain actions; many of these phrases have standard responses. A typical gag involves Shin-chan confounding his parents by using the wrong phrase for the occasion; for example, saying "Welcome back!" ("おかえりなさい" "okaeri nasai") instead of "I'm home!" ("ただいま" "Tadaima") when he comes home. Another difficulty in translation arises from the use of onomatopoeic Japanese words. In scolding Shin-chan and attempting to educate him in proper behaviour his parent or tutor may use such a phrase to indicate the correct action. Often through misinterpreting such a phrase as a different, though similar sounding phrase, or through interpreting it in one sense when another is intended, Shin-chan will embark on a course of action which, while it may be what he thinks is being requested of him, leads to bizarre acts which serve only to vex his parents or tutors even more. This is not restricted to onomatopoeic words, since almost any word can become a source of confusion for Shin-chan, including English loan-words, such as mistaking "cool" for "pool" ("That's pool!" or "プールだぞ！ (Pu-ru da zo!)" for "That's cool!").


Manga Volumes 1-11