The Adventures of Little Lulu and Tubby

The Adventures of Little Lulu and Tubby, known in Japan as Little Lulu and Her Little Friends, was produced by Nippon Animation and debuted in 1976. This series marked the first anime adaptation of Marjorie Henderson Buell’s iconic comic strip character, who had been a fixture in American popular culture since the mid-1930s. The production sought to bridge the gap between American post-war humor comics and the burgeoning Japanese animation style of the 1970s, aiming to bring Lulu's mischievous energy to an international television audience.

The design of the characters was adapted to fit the aesthetic sensibilities of mid-70s Nippon Animation, which was gaining recognition for its work on the World Masterpiece Theater series. While the show maintained the classic dynamics between the headstrong Lulu and her friend Tubby, the visual style softened the sharper lines of the original newspaper strips into the more rounded, fluid character designs prevalent in Japanese television at the time. The series is remembered by collectors today as a distinct curiosity that highlights the mid-century export of American intellectual property into the Japanese animation market.