Friendly Fandoms: Against all odds, the franchise enjoyed a friendly fandom with Sylvanian Families despite Maple Town being allegedly created as a response to Sylvanian Families (Maple Town toys started appearing a year later, in 1986) and both selling little plush figurines, dollhouse furniture and dollhouses (although Maple Town figurines were originally hard plastic, they switched to making plush figurines pretty quickly). Helping things more is that the figures were roughly the same size and thus the accessories were cross-compatible. It makes more sense when you realize that Haim Saban and Shuki Levy were involved in the Animated Adaptations of both projects, although their contribution to Sylvanian Families was minimal at best. Fans of the respective franchises consider the other to be a sister franchise, to the point the subreddit for Sylvanian Families welcomes Maple Town fans with open arms.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The series is beloved in some parts of Europe, such as Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium. However, Maple Town is very beloved and more well-known in Spain where it's known as La aldea del Arce. Spain is one of the few countries besides Japan that has been able to gain a home video release of the series on both DVD and VHS. In Spain, the anime gained a complete DVD set◊, the only other country to get a complete DVD set aside from Japan. Some Patty and Bobby figurines◊ were also exclusively made in Spain. 26 episodes of Maple Town were also dubbed in Arabic, however its sequel series Palm Town is a more popular among Arabic viewers with its entire 50 episode run being dubbed.
LesYay: In Palm Town, Patty and Rolley are officially portrayed as really close friends, but with the ways they usually interact, you'd be forgiven for thinking that they're a lesbian Puppy Love couple.
Macekre: Sort of. There was no "Mrs. Maple" character in the Japanese version.
Rolley is moe too. Although she is only known in markets that get the Palm Town episodes.
At this point, all of the female characters can be considered Moe.
Narm: In the first episode's english dub, Patty's father, Mr. Rabbit, tried to sway Wilde Wolf from stealing the mail he was supposed to deliver by saying it's US property. even though we see the Canadian flag a few times throughout the episode, we don't see the American flag anywhere, and we even see red maple leave symbols on some of the mail.
Popular with Furries: Spanish, Dutch, North American and Japanese furries who grew up in the 80's had fond memories of the series. This is especially true in Spain, where the series gained DVD releases. It helps that the series had a cute and nostalgic setting.
Maple Town is commonly compared to the 1974 anime Heidi, Girl of the Alps (including the CGI series by Belgian studio Studio 100), due to both being set in a town located in a peaceful countryside. Some even describe Maple Town as the Anthropomorphic Animal version of Heidi. Even Patty is sometimes compared to Heidi, both in personality and their carefree life with both of their friends.
Shima Shima Tora no Shimajirō can be considered one. The Kodomo Challenge videos premiered exactly one year after Maple Town ended and the show bears some similarities to Maple Town- firstly, it targets the same preschooler demographics of Maple Town. Secondly, there are some notable art style similarities between the character designs used in both anime. Thirdly, there are also extreme similarities in the general world the stories are set in - like how the father of the protagonists are postal workers and their teacher of the protagonist at school are deers. Then there's the fact that several Maple Town VAs were part of the original cast (though they were all switched out when the show spun off and became a TV series of it's own). Lastly, Ban-Dai was also originally licensed to produce some of the toys for Shimajiro (and still does so on and off- mostly as gacha toys).
Superlative Dubbing: The Spanish and Dutch dubs of the series is notably more lifelike and decent. Especially in the Spanish version where Patty sounds more expressive and cuter.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Some viewers were unhappy with Palm Town for taking Patty out of Maple Town and to a completely different and more contemporary setting. The absence of the Maple Town characters, save for a few cameos, also contributed to this.
Values Dissonance: As noted, the parents in the show has no qualms about spanking their kids to punish them. Corporal punishment is highly frowned upon in the modern age and particularly in western countries.
Rachel Rabbit, Patty's older sister, even carries out the corporal punishment for her in one episode, which wasn't even censored in the English version. And it's taken absolutely seriously. Let that sink in: someone who's supposed to be an older sibling for the protagonist ends up doing something the parents would do.
Vindicated by History: While Palm Town didn't do too well when it originally aired, in recent years people who have watched it, while admitting it wasn't as good as Maple Town, are saying it does hold up and wasn't that bad.
The Woobie: If a character takes the spotlight in an episode, you can bet they're going to be this.
is full of 80s cheese and will get stuck in your head.
