My friend Ted Anderson is a huge fan of the new My Little Ponies series, a show I wouldn’t even know existed were it not for his tireless efforts to spread the My Little Pony gospel.
I still haven’t seen it yet so I’ll reserve comment on that, but there is a Japanese children’s cartoon that I really love called Oden-kun. The first episode heads this entry.
It’s not one of those ironic, winking-at-the-adults shows; instead, it’s sweet and earnest. (Although the super-long intro in this episode is weirdly dark.) Oden-kun just has a quality to it that always makes me smile, and I’ve met other adults in Japan that felt the same way. I suppose in that sense it possesses that rare quality that Peanuts has, in that it could be enjoyed by nine year old girls or 34 year old cartoonists.
English subtitles are available by pressing the “CC” button. Enjoy!