Mapletown

Maple Town (Maple Town Monogatari) was an animated television series, produced by Toei of Japan and originally broadcast on that country's TV Asahi network in 1986 and 1987. Directed by Junichi Sato (Sailor Moon), the show was based on a popular toy line that was essentially an Expy of Sylvanian Families. It centered on a community of anthropomorphic animals somewhere in Canada during the early 20th century; its main characters were Patty Rabbit and her friend, Bobby Bear. The town was an impossibly friendly, cheerful place, with the only trouble being caused by the thieving swindler, Wild Wolf, and occasionally by the bratty but generally good-hearted Fanny Fox.

In the U.S., Saban Entertainment dubbed the show into English in 1987, and added a live-action segment focusing on the moral of each episode, starring Janice Adams as Mrs. Maple. This version aired in barter syndication on a few Fox affiliates, on Nickelodeon from 1987 to 1989 and on The Family Channel in 1989-90. The toy line was released in the U.S. by Tonka. Interestingly, although the Sylvanian Families toys sold better in the U.S., Maple Town's TV series was far more successful (and of much higher quality) than Sylvanian Families' was, largely due to its high production values.

After 50 episodes, the series underwent a format change and changed its name to "New Maple Town Stories: Palm Town Chapter." In this new series, Patty Rabbit moves away from the forested Maple Town (thus making the title rather misleading) and to a new setting, the tropical Palm Town. Waiting for her there are a new group of friends and troublemakers. None of the other Maple Town denizens tag along, making Patty the only regular character in both series. This move proved unpopular, and the series ended about a year after the change. Note that none of the Palm Town episodes were ever dubbed into English (and neither was about half of the first series).

The show aired in many other countries, too, including Spain, Italy, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Netherlands, and, naturally, Canada, where it was shown in both English (on YTV) and French (on Radio-Canada).

Mapletown contains examples of:

• Alliterative Name: In the American version, this applied for almost every character (save for Patty): Danny Dog, Fanny Fox, Barney Bulldog, Suzie Squirrel, Roxie Raccoon...
• Alternative Foreign Theme Song: Every country has its own unique theme song.
• Anachronism Stew: Comes into play with the first series, regarding the show's early-20th-century Canadian setting. Canada's iconic red maple leaf motif can be glimpsed on occasion, but it wasn't on the official Canadian flag until 1965. Also, a police officer's notebook is shown as readable from back to front (like Japanese books), rather than front to back (like Western books).
• Bait and Switch Credits: The intro is far more cutesy and surreal than the show itself.
  • The French dub also includes a unique example: the opening theme song mentions a character called Gabby the bear, though no character by that name exists in the series (it's not a Dub Name Change for Bobby). The reason: the French dubbers marketed Mapletown (or Les Petits Malins as it was known in France and Quebec) alongside a Teddy Ruxpin Expy called Gabby, to the point where they even created an original (and obviously not anime) opening sequence featuring Gabby interacting with the Mapletown characters.
• Cheerful Child: Patty, as well as several other cast members.
• Dub Name Change: In the original Japanese version, Patty Rabbit is Patty Hoperabbit (because rabbits hop) and Bobby Bear is Bobby Kumanoff (a Japanese/Russian Bilingual Bonus; see below). Among other characters, Fanny Fox's original name is Diana.
• Expy: The franchise is an Expy of Sylvanian Families (whose toy line preceded Maple Town's in Japan), although Maple Town's anime came before Sylvanian Families' U.S.-produced animated series (Sylvanian didn't get an anime until 2007). The rival franchises ended up more or less evenly matched in the American market: Sylvanian toys (aka Calico Critters) sold better, but Maple Town's animation was more popular.
• Frothy Mugs of Water: One episode had wine referred to as "grape juice", but shortly after, one of the voice actors slipped up and called it "wine".
• Loads and Loads of Characters
• Merchandise Driven: It was based on a toy line, which went against then-Nickelodeon president Geraldine Laybourne's desire to avoid having such shows on her network. Nevertheless, it was a high quality production and the series eclipsed the toy line in popularity anyway.
• My Beloved Smother: Danny Dog's mother. When he tells her nicely that he wants to go hunting for an herb to help his father instead of studying she thinks he's caught a cold and rushes him back into the house.
• Names to Know in Anime: Junichi Sato, the series director, would later become better known as the director of Sailor Moon (the first two series anyway), Kaleido Star and Sgt. Frog among others. Episode director Kunihiko Ikuhara would go on to direct the S and SuperS series of Sailor Moon plus Revolutionary Girl Utena. Animation director Kazuo Komatsubara is well known for his work on Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Devilman (both TV and OAV versions).
• No Cartoon Fish: Or birds, for that matter.
• No Export for You: A great deal of the later episodes never made it to the U.S. market. The same goes for the video compilations from Family Home Entertainment in North America, and an obscure distributor going by the name of M.S.D. in the U.K. Moreover, the sequel series, Palm Town, was never shown in English.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: Towards the child characters. Adults are always the ones who must learn lessons, anything fun and cheerful and childlike is good, and responsible/serious is bad. Pop Arena's "Nick Knacks" review of the series calls it "a children's power fantasy."
• Puppy Dog Eyes: Rolley from Palm Town. Literally... she's a cocker spaniel.
• Screwy Squirrel: Bobby's three brothers (Kin, Kun and Ken) in several of the original episodes.
• Short Anime Movie: Two of them, released theatrically. The one for Palm Town had an extended flashback sequence edited from the original series' finale.
• Shout-Out: In the '90s Sailor Moon anime, Usagi/Serena has a stuffed rabbit resembling Patty, which doubles as a shout-out to Mapletown and a pun on her own name ("usagi" is "rabbit" in Japanese). Chalk this up to both series having the same director, and the animation director for that episode (Masahiro Ando) also working on both.
• Species Surname: The original Japanese version was clever in this respect: many character surnames are formed from Japanese words associated with said species, plus European roots. For example: Bobby Kumanoff (Japanese kuma, or bear + Russian noff (nov).