Japanese Anime

Having grown up in Japan during the 80's, I watched a lot of Japanese Animes. This was much before the Pokemon's came and made the Japanese anime popular again.

One in particular was Dokonjo Kaeru(trans: Frog with Guts). This anime was bradcast on TV in 70s. I used to watch the repeats of this really quirky show. Its about a high school student (Hiroshi) who trips and falls on a frog. What happens as a result is that the frog gets stuck on his sweat shirt (see image). This frog (called Pyonkichi) is quite a character. The frog talks (of course) and is quite a character. The opening song of this was interesting in its usage of the "Kaeru" - this word means frog but also can mean return, change (clothes) and some other usages. As with all animes, this frog runs after girls too.

Now the physics of Pyonkichi was that he was usually worn by Hiroshi but could also move independently. Most of the time, the will of Pyonkichi would prevail in their physical movement.
Their quirky combination resulted in this anime being, in Hollywood terms, a buddy comedy.

The show (like many animes) was 1/2 hour with 2 episodes.

The episodes used to have the funniest (and strangest) storylines. There was one episode where its about Hiroshi running and tripping on a piece of rock and falling, due to which he becomes late to his high school. He keeps getting punished for becoming late. To solve this problem once and for all, Pyonkichi and Hiroshi decide to get the stone out of the way. But he discovers that the stone cannot be removed easily and would require some digging. So he, Pyonkichi and another character (the delivery guy from a Sushi store) start digging. They dig a bit. But still no luck. They dig a little more. Still no luck. After a whole (school) day of digging, that this little was the tip of the iceberg or rather a large boulder. So finally they give up and restore the dug area. Result? He becomes late again the next day and trips on the rock..