The Secrets of Akko-chan (1998 anime)

**The Secrets of Akko-chan** (ひみつのアッコちゃん *Himitsu no Akko-chan*) is the third, 1998 anime adaptation of Fujio Akatsuka's manga. It was produced by Toei Animation, and ran on Fuji TV from April 5, 1998 to February 28, 1999.

As with the previous adaptation, it was a joint production between Fuji TV, Toei, and Yomiko Advertising. However, there was no "media mix" push to have a manga run alongside it by Fujio Pro.

## Overview

Different staff members from the previous Toei series returned for this installment, such as Hiromi Seki (producer), Hiroki Shibata (director), and Yoshio Urasawa (head writer). Like before, this third series would serve as yet another way of updating the *Akko-chan* concept. While Akko's hair color was now brown like the first series, her overall character design and personality were a callback to the second series. Her parents were redesigned and given new jobs once more, and the teachers Sato and Moriyama were given further redesigns. Ippei, a penguin, was introduced to the series to provide another animal mascot alongside Shippona and Dora.

Mitsuko Horie, who previously voiced Akko in the 1988 show, was now cast as the Queen of the Mirrors. Yoshiko Ota would also appear in a cameo role later on as an old woman helping Akko out. While the cast was mostly switched out for younger or newer talent, Keiko Yamamoto would stay on in her roles of Chikako and Moko's mother.

Unfortunately for the series, its low ratings and poor toy sales contributed to it running less than a year on Fuji TV, and receiving no theatrical films or further tie-ins. As magical girl anime was more commonplace now, Akko could not compete against other networks' offerings like *Card Captor Sakura* and criticisms of the writing, art style, and cases of off-model in the show by older fans also had plagued its reputation.

## Staff

### Voice Cast

* Akko- Wakana Yamazaki
* Moko- Kikumi Umeda
* Taisho- Takuma Suzuki
* Shosho- Satomi Korogi
* Kankichi- Harumi Ikoma
* Ganmo, Ippei the Penguin- Junko Takeuchi
* Chikako, Moko's mother- Keiko Yamamoto
* Gyoro- Yoshihiko Akida
* Goma, Dora- Yasuhiro Takato
* Papa- Ken Yamaguchi
* Mama- Miina Tominaga
* Sato- Hiroki Takahashi
* Moriyama, Shippona- Ai Nagano
* Queen of the Mirrors- Mitsuko Horie
* Taisho's father- Ginzō Matsuo
* Ganmo's father- Tomohiro Nishimura
* Ganmo's mother- Yoko Matsuoka
* Moko's father- Nobuaki Suzuki

## Theme Song

### Opening theme

**"The Secrets of Akko-chan"**

Lyrics- Hisashi Inoue, Takeshi Yamamoto/Composition- Asei Kobayashi/Arrangement- Michiru Oshima/Singer- Satoko Shimonose

### Ending themes

**"I Want You to Listen to my Song"** (episodes 1-26)

Lyrics- Yumi Shiraka, Yoshio Urasawa/Composition, Arrangement- Hideki Fujisaki/Singers- Yumi Shiraka, TAKING VITAMIN J

**"It's a Fine Day in Japan! Akko-chan"** (episodes 27-44)

Lyrics- Hanako Ishikawa/Composition, Arrangement- Kenzo Atsuzu/Singer- The Akko-chans

## Episode List

１ 鏡の国のおくりもの

２ 暴れん坊ペンギン・一平

３ ギャング大将・愛の暴走

４ 中華おばけレストラン!?

５ 仁義なき猫戦争！

６ 学校を守れ！アッコ校長

７ モコちゃんの晩ごはん

８ 男大将・サッカー対決

９ 風水師とサクランボ

１０ 少将の初恋でしゅ！

１１ 落語と豆腐と宇宙人！

１２ ジャイアント・アッコ

１３ 美少女仮面におまかせ

１４ チカ子の噂でワニワニ!?

１５ 夢のイルカショー！

１６ お騒がせスーパーベビー

１７ 思い出の渚・タコの海

１８ 巨大鯉を探せ！夏の冒険

１９ 受難！夏バテペンギン

２０ 華麗なるマジシャン！

２１ 人魚の読書感想文!?

２２ ド演歌・夫婦道！

２３ 恋のワンワン騒動！

２４ ひみつのチカ子ちゃん

２５ 怪盗ふくみみの挑戦！

２６ 新しいひ・み・つ！

２７ 走れ！バニーガール

２８ ダイエット狂騒曲！

２９ ここ掘れペンペン！

３０ ロミオがいっぱい!?

３１ 駆けろ！サラブレッド

３２ ひみつのラブレター

３３ ガンモの豆腐道！

３４ 少将・学校へ行く！

３５ 新親分をさがせ!?

３６ サンタさんと願い星

３７ 大将の一番長い日！

３８ ふしぎの夢のアッコ

３９ 怪盗ふくみみの逆襲！

４０ 飛べ！銀盤の妖精

４１ 史上最低の変身！

４２ チョコレート陰謀団

４３ 冬の日の迷い猫

４４ さよなら私のひみつ

## Overseas Broadcast and Adaptations

*See also: List of foreign dub names for characters of Akko-chan's Got a Secret!*

### Hong Kong

It was dubbed into Cantonese under the title ***Small Magic Change, Small Magic Change*** (小魔法變變變、小魔鏡變變變).

### Italy

A dubbed version was aired on Italia 1 in 2000. It was re-titled ***Stilly and the Magic Mirror*** (*Stilly e lo specchio magico*). The name changes used in the dub of the 1988 series carried over, though Shippona was now called "Lorella".

### Spain

It was localized for Spain in 2000, under the title choice ***The Secret of Akko*** (*El Secreto de Akko*). It was dubbed through Madrid's Arait Multimedia. It is notable for being the only Akko series imported to this country.

## References

1. ↑ as given by Toei's USA Catalog; "The Secrets of Akko-chan 3"

## External Links

* Toei Animation USA Catalog, "Magic Girls" (English)
* 1998 series page, Toei Animation official site (Japanese)