is manga series by Noboru Kawasaki

Noboru Kawasaki

is a Japanese manga artist. He is most famous for drawing the series Star of the Giants. He won the 14th Shogakukan Manga Award in 1969 for Animal 1 and Inakappe Taishō and the 2nd Kodansha Manga Award for shōnen in 1978 for Football Hawk....

 published from 1973 to 1975 by Shogakukan

Shogakukan

is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, manga, non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan.Shogakukan founded Shueisha which founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the Hitotsubashi Group, one of the largest publishing groups in Japan...

 in their elementary school study magazines in the Shogakukan no Gakushō Zasshi series. The manga was collected in four volumes

Tankobon

, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...

. An anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 series adapted from the manga was created by Tatsunoko Production

Tatsunoko Production

, often shortened to , is a Japanese animation company. Founded in October 1962 by acclaimed anime pioneer Tatsuo Yoshida along with his brothers Kenji and Toyoharu...

. The anime was also broadcast in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 under the title Coccinella. Following Inakappe Taisho in 1970, it was the second of Kawasaki's works to be made into animation by Tatsunoko.

Plot

There are seven young brothers and sisters who grow up peacefully supported by the love and care of their parents. As a token of gratitude, the children present a trip to the couple on their wedding anniversary. This heartfelt deed, however, causes a terrible misfortune as their parents are killed while on their travels. Though it is certainly a shocking tragedy to the youngsters, they cannot be left in sorrow for a long time. Rather they have to make efforts to stand on their own feet in a body without depending on anybody else. So, their strenuous and daring living starts anew helping one another with brotherly affection, and their sincere attitude and lively activities gradually win admiration and encouragement from people of the community.