For many people in the U.S. and some western countries, the reason it is known at all is because of an obscure reference in the My Life as a Teenage Robot episode "I Was a Preschool Dropout" (interestingly, anyone only familiar with the English dub version, in which the heroine's name is Gigi, wouldn't get the joke; by the way, the actual tune is taken from The Kinks' song "Pressure"):
Brad: Minky Minky Minky Minky Minky Minky Minky Momo! The Minky Momo is an attitude, the Minky Momo is a mellow mood, you Momo when you're drinking lemonade, you Momo soakin' in a marinade! I know you're Minky 'cause I'm Momo too, so I know what you're going through, but there's no mo' Momo whenever I get close to you!
Another bump came in 2013 after Walrusguy made aYouTube Poop of the truck scene after the infamous episode of Family Guy where Brian gets Killed Off for Real, featuring Brian's head plastered over Momo and Stewie's over a child in a toy car.
A third bump came in 2019 when Kenny Lauderdale (a YouTuber specializing in more obscure Japanese properties perhaps best known for similarly raising awareness of Twinkle Nora Rock Me!) did a retrospective of the series which covered several of the trivia entries mentioned on this page, most notably "The Curse of Minky Momo."
In Latin America, the show is called "Las Aventuras de Gigi" (The Adventures of Gigi).
In Italy the show is called "Il magico mondo di Gigi" (The Magical World of Gigi).
In Portugal the show is called "Gigi e a Fonte da Juventude" (Gigi and the Fountain of Youth).
In Korea the show is called "요술공주 밍키" (Magical Princess).
In the Arab World the show is called "مغامرات حنين" (Nostalgic Adventures).
In Taiwan it is called "甜甜仙子" (Sweet Fairy).
Dueling Shows: The 1991 series was in a duel with the first season of Sailor Moon, another Magical Girl series about a girl secretly from another world. Both series also ran in the same preschool magazine.
Foreign Dub as Basis: The Dutch, Italian and French dubs of Magical Princess Minky Momo were based on the English dub by Harmony Gold. The only dub that was based on the original Japanese script was the Arabic one.
Fountain of Expies: The King and Queen of Fenarinarsa. Many other anime, including the second Minky Momo series, the Slayers Movie, and Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure, have a fantasy Ruling Couple of a short, older, mustachioed king and a tall, thin queen that look just different enough from their inspiration to avoid copyright infringement.
He Also Did: Fifteen years after the anime premiered, the series director (Kunihiko Yuyama) and head writer (Takeshi Shudō) would go on to work on Pokémon, on the same network, in the same capacity. And prior to both they also created GoShogun which again, also aired on the same network.
No Export for You: For a while, Minky Momo was never seen in the United States (other than Harmony Gold's dub of the Yume no Naka Rondo OVA), even though the show was aired in France and other countries (and the English dub of the '82 series, also made by Harmony Gold, aired in Australia). Even fansubs of either series were incomplete. However, as of 2015, this has been averted, as William Winckler Production has made several compilation movies of the Harmony Gold series, and the original series was later added to Crunchyroll in 2024.
Reality Subtext: According to an interview with OUT, Takeshi Shudō stated that Momo was ran over by a truck full of toys to signify the disagreements him and sponsor Popy were having - they refused to fund the show in spite of the positive ratings.
There was to be a third Minky Momo series, Miracle Dream Minky Momo, but it only got to exist as a manga and the plans for the anime adaptation fell through (presumably due to the passing of Takeshi Shudō in 2010). It would have featured yet another Momo, who would hail from a land-based kingdom (rather than one in the sea or sky).
Harmony Gold's (American-made) dub of the series could have been an early magical girl anime for the US, but networks passed on it and it only got to show up in Australia years after it was produced (which was in 1984, as a simultaneous production alongside Robotech). Some fans have memories of it airing in a few other nations, such as The Bahamas and Israel, but if true, The Bahamas would be the closest it ever got to the States.
The series has been considered unlucky, due to unfortunate events that have been associated with it. One example of such an unfortunate event is a seismic earthquake that happened right after the infamous finale aired. It is said that the finale was so traumatic that Momo's energy caused an earthquake. In 1995, the series was rebroadcast, and when the finale was aired the second time, The Great Hanshin Earthquake occurred, in which over 6000 people died. And tragically, in 2013, a 14 year old livestreamer called rorochan_1999 who used Minky Momo as her profile picture and played the theme song on the piano during her livestreams committed suicide by jumping off a roof during a livestream. These events, along with the infamous dark ending of the series, make Minky Momo seem like a bad omen. The bad luck connected to the show is referred to as "The Curse of Minky Momo." This becomes even more eerie when you learn that some Minky Momo episodes were made out of unused drafts of Shudo's prior work Idol Angel Yokoso Yoko, which has one of the most infamous Troubled Productions in all of Japan.
Because the show had an one-shot mecha in Episode 31 known as "Minkinasa" (itself a parody of its sister show, GoShogun), this made Minky Momo eligible to be included in Super Robot Wars X-Ω as a one-time event feature. Momo gets to meet HamanKarn and they end up comparing their hairstyles (which are noted to look very similar by Gundam and Minky Momo fans), with Momo being likened to "Haman as a kid."
YouTube Poop of the truck scene after the infamous episode of Family Guy where Brian gets Killed Off for Real, featuring Brian's head plastered over Momo and Stewie's over a child in a toy car.