SpongeBob SquarePants

SpongeBob SquarePants (スポンジ・ボブ) is a Nickelodeon cartoon created by Stephen Hillenburg.

Overview

SpongeBob SquarePants , or simply just SpongeBob (スポンジ・ボブ, suponji bobu), created by Stephen Hillenburg, a cartoonist with a background as a marine biologist, is an animated family gag series that continues to be a national favorite in the United States.

In Japan, it was originally broadcast on the CS channel Nickelodeon under the title Sponge Bob.

After Nickelodeon's withdrawal from CS broadcasting in 2009 (and again in 2022) due to low viewership of young Japanese audience, it was broadcast on NHK BS2 from 2005 to 2011, and on NHK Educational TV (now E Tele) from 2007 to 2009. It was later broadcast on Animax and BS Fuji, and has been broadcast again on NHK Educational TV (now E Tele) since April 2015.

It has also been broadcast on NHK BS HD (a.k.a. BShi), now BS Premium in parallel with NHK Educational TV, now E Tele.

As a side note, in the NHK version, the live-action footage of a mushroom cloud used in the explosion punchline were voluntarily restricted because Japan is a country that has been exposed to radiation.

The series was made into a movie, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, which was released in the U.S. in 2004 and in Japan in 2006.

In Japan, it is thought to have been made famous by a McDonald's commercial, commonly known as the Insane Set.

Stephen Hillenburg, the original author of the cartoon, passed away on November 26, 2018.

The news of his passing came about a year and a half after it was announced that he was suffering from ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), an incurable disease, and had been battling the disease, and many fans in Japan and abroad offered their condolences.