History Anime / MapleTown

->''[[ThemeTune My favorite place to be... Maple Town and me.]]''

* DolledUpInstallment: The French dub of the show is played up by its opening song as a cartoon based on Gabby Bear, a Franchise/TeddyRuxpin-like toy produced by French company Vulli.. Other than the theme song itself, which focuses entirely on Gabby and features newly made footage of him interacting with Patty and the other characters on life-sized versions of various other Vulli toys, the actual cartoon is the exact same.

* CanonForeigner: In France, the series was promoted with Gabby, an original bear cub character who is mentioned in the theme song lyrics and sold as a stuffed toy, but does not appear in the show itself. Interestingly, the actual Maple Town toy line was never released there.

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, although the arc actually started as in the last episode of the original series) 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. However Palm Town arc has been aired in several countries such as Italy and Arabic speaking markets where the entire 50 episode run was translated and where it trumps Maple Town in popularity.

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. However Palm Town arc has been aired in several countries such as Italy and Arabic speaking markets where the entire 50 episode run was translated and where it trumps Maple Town in popularity.

The show aired in many other countries, too, including France, Spain, Italy, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Netherlands. It's also noteworthy for being directed by Junichi Sato, who would go on to greater fame as director of anime like ''Manga/GoldfishWarning'', ''Manga/SergeantFrog'', ''Anime/KaleidoStar'', ''Anime/JunkersComeHere'', and most famously, ''Anime/SailorMoon'' (which even included a ShoutOut to ''Maple Town'' in the form of a stuffed Patty-like rabbit owned by heroine Usagi Tsukino). Kunihiko Ikuhara, who would direct the later seasons of ''Sailor Moon'', also cut his teeth on ''Mapletown'' as assistant director.

In the U.S., Creator/SabanEntertainment produced a partial English dub of the series (the first 26 episodes) and added a live-action segment focusing on the moral of each episode, starring Janice Adams as Mrs. Maple. This version aired in syndication and on {{Creator/Nickelodeon}} and later [[Creator/{{Freeform}} The Family Channel]] from 1987 to 1993, and the accompanying toy line was released in the United States by Creator/{{Tonka}}.

* MerchandiseDriven: Figures of the characters along with playsets and vehicles were available during the initial run of the series. This was towards the end of TheEighties when economic downturn and a market already saturated with licensed toys were present. In fact, this even led to a theory about why the later episodes of Maple Town and the sequel series were not released in the USA - the merchandise simply didn't live up to expectations. Even in America, the anime was quite a bit more popular than the toys, and it was better-received than the ''WesternAnimation/SylvanianFamilies'' animated series although ''Sylvanian Families'' toys sold better.
** Being a merchandise-driven show made it a surprising choice for Nickelodeon in the late 1980s, as the network had previously made a point to stay away from such shows. On the other hand, the quality of the show itself arguably made it a good fit in the Nickelodeon lineup alongside the other Japanese imports the network was airing at the time, such as ''Anime/BelleAndSebastian'' and ''Anime/AdventuresOfTheLittleKoala''.

The show aired in many other countries, too, including France, Spain, Italy, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Netherlands. It's also noteworthy for being directed by Junichi Sato and assistant-directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara, both of whom would go on to bigger fame for directing on ''Anime/SailorMoon'' (which even included a ShoutOut to ''Maple Town'' in the form of a stuffed Patty-like rabbit owned by heroine Usagi Tsukino).

* LoopedLyrics: The dub theme only has two verses, with the second one repeated throughout.

* MerchandiseDriven: Figures of the characters along with playsets and vehicles were available during the initial run of the series. This was towards the end of TheEighties when economic downturn and a market already saturated with licensed toys were present. In fact, this even led to a theory about why the later episodes of Maple Town and the sequel series were not released in the USA - the merchandise simply didn't live up to expectations.

In the U.S., Creator/SabanEntertainment produced a partial English dub of the series (the first 26 episodes) and added a live-action segment focusing on the moral of each episode, starring Janice Adams as Mrs. Maple. This version aired in syndication and on {{Creator/Nickelodeon}} from 1987 to 1993, and the accompanying toy line was released in the United States by Creator/{{Tonka}}.

The show aired in many other countries, too, including France, Spain, Italy, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Netherlands. It's also noteworthy for being directed by Junichi Sato, who would go on to bigger fame as director of the original ''Anime/SailorMoon'' series (which even included a ShoutOut to ''Maple Town'' in the form of a stuffed Patty-like rabbit owned by heroine Usagi Tsukino).

* NamesToKnowInAnime: And how. The animation staff for this series consisted of several names who were already well known in the industry, including Kazuo Komatsubara (''Manga/{{Devilman}}'', ''Anime/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind'') and Shingo Araki (''Anime/SaintSeiya'', ''Anime/UFORoboGrendizer''), and others who would be, including director Junichi Sato (''Manga/SailorMoon'', ''Anime/KaleidoStar'', ''Anime/JunkersComeHere'') and assistant director Kunihiko Ikuhara (''Sailor Moon'', ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'').

%%* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters