Shimajiro is a Spiritual Successor to Maple Town
Firstly, there is some noticeable art style similarities for some of the characters (Sakurako’s art style is suspiciously similar to Joey Terrier, a character from the Palm Town arc of Maple Town for one- why I marked her as a dog of terrier breed). Secondly, I had unearthed images that shows Bandai Namco did create little plastic figures of Shimajiro characters early in the franchise’s run that are similar in style to the early Maple Town figures (which of course was made by them). Thirdly, according to the Japanese Wikipedia page for Shimajiro, a number of Maple Town VAs were present in the early years of the series when it was still a segment of the Kodomo Challenge videos. And lastly, perhaps most telling of all, Maple Town was marketed as an educational show that encourages communication and emphasises EIQ according to some of the materials that the toys came in that released in Japan- while Shimajiro does emphasises learning in general and covers a wider curriculum, EIQ and communication is still emphasised as a core component in the show. This has led me to conclude that there might be a deeper link between the two franchises that is just more than coincidences.- Oh yeah, and both shows have deers as schoolmarms.
- And the fact that the father of the protagonist of both shows are postmasters.
