Fisherman Sanpei (釣りキチ三平) is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Takao Yaguchi. The manga was serialised in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine from 1973 to 1983. Kodansha has published the manga's 57 bound volumes between July 5, 2003 and October 5, 2005. The manga was adapted into an 109-episode anime series. Directed by Yoshikata Nitta, the anime's 109 episodes were broadcast on Fuji TV between April 7, 1980 and June 28, 1982. The official English name is Fisherman Sanpei. As of October 2020, the Fisherman Sanpei manga had over 50 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling manga series.

Plot

Characters

Anime

The anime uses two pieces of theme song. "Wakaki Tabibito" (若き旅人) by MoJo is the series' opening theme, while "Ore wa tsurikichi Sanpei da" (おれは釣りキチ三平だ) also by MoJo is the series' ending theme. An OVA called まんがビデオシリーズ 釣りキチ三平 was released in 2001 on VHS only.

Episode list

Film

A live action film adaptation of the manga was released in 2009, starring Kenta Suga, Takashi Tsukamoto and Yuu Kashii. The official English name of this film is Sanpei the Fisher Boy.

Video games

There were two official video games, developed by Victor Musical Industries, and published by Cross Media Soft for MSX home computers and the Famicom: