The greeting in the novel is quite different than the one used in the movie where they'd say "Good for You". In the book they would say "Crunchy apples to you comrade" another would respond with "Juicy oranges to you" and the first person would return with "Have a banana".
This has been adapted in Japan in the form of a 13 ep. ONA series under 'Chocolate Underground' (Chokoreto Andaguraundo).
Was turned into a Manga. The manga adaptation was done by Japanese manga artist, Aiji Yamakawa. It was serialized in Shueisha's shojo monthly manga magazine, Bessatsu Margaret from its 2nd issue and ended on the 15th issue of the magazine in the year 2008.
The anime adaptation of the manga is written by Kiyoko Yoshimura and animated by Production I.G with original character designs provided by Aiji Yamakawa. voice actor Fumie Mizusawa and Toshiyuki Toyonaga voices the main characters, Smudger Moore and Huntley Hunter respectively and Japanese singer, Maaya Sakamoto voicing Carol Hunter.
The adaptation's theme song and insert song are sung by Kana Nishino. The theme song's title is Make Up and the insert song is titled as Kirari and is released under SME Records.
In 2003, It won an ATOM (Australian Teachers of Media) Award for Best Children's Drama series.