A press release from Toyota Japan, announced that the franchise has created a five-part manga series to commemorate the production milestone of 50 million units of its best-selling model, Corolla.

The manga episodes span each decade of the iconic car model — 1960 to 2020.  Each chapter concludes with a special moment honoring genuine owners and the photographs they’ve sent to Toyota.

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The automaker also informed that at a time when owning a car was limited to a certain group of people, Corolla was born with the idea of ‘making cars for everyone.’

In the 1970s, the manga shows a father and a son having what looks like a serious discussion while driving in an E20-generation model. The page dedicated to the 1980s highlights the rear-wheel-drive AE86, which stands proud as one of the best-known and most sought-after Corolla variants.

The following page shows a family going out for ice cream in an E100-generation Corolla from the 1990s. Toyota skipped the 2000s and the 2010s (not really hard to guess why) and jumped to the 2020s with a comic strip that focuses on technology, like the Corolla’s touchscreen-based infotainment system.

At the time of writing, the manga series is only available online; there’s no word yet on whether Toyota will release a printed version of it.

For celebrating Toyota Corolla’s 50-million milestone, the carmaker has also introduced a special ‘50 Million Edition’ iteration for its wagon, hatchback and sedan variants, though these special editions models will be only available in Japan.

In a separate development, Toyota is planning to introduce its own software operating system for its vehicles by 2025, reported Nikkei. This system will be capable of handling advanced operations such as autonomous driving, management of electric motors and batteries that will support entertainment and navigation in the vehicles.

The first Corolla was released in the late 1960s, at a period of tremendous economic expansion.

Corolla E10 was the name of the first-generation vehicle. The Toyota Corolla is available in a variety of body styles, including hatchback, sedan, coupe, waggon, and minivan. This improved the model’s appeal, which led to its adoption in markets all over the world, including Japan.

Source: Hindusthan Times, Hype Beast, AutoBlog