@te-kun Yes, it is! Mitsudomoe chapters are always references to something, usually Japanese media, but not always. 🙂
A bit of some behind-the-scenes trivia for you:
The original title was actually a parody of an obscure manga called "Mako-chan's Picture Diary."
I decided to do a parody of "Chibi Maruko-chan" instead, which keeps the Mako->Namako theme of the parody.
We tend to localize references whenever we feel that Western audiences would have a hard time recognizing or appreciating the original ones.
@floatingsunfish Chibi Maruko-chan never struck me as something western audiences would recognize, to me it is like Anpan-man. Super famous in East but little known in west.