Simply put, Akazukin Chacha (literally, Red-hooded Chacha) is a shoujo (girls) manga and anime created by the great Ayahana Min about a girl named Chacha and the various hilarious misadventures she and her friends do, not to mention her learning how to use magic.
The ACC anime grew from its manga (comic book) counterpart which was first published in 1991 in Ribon, a comics magazine whose readers are mainly girls. The anime ran for 74 episodes, and had been shown lately in Cartoon Network (Asia), dubbed in English and in the Philippines (dubbed in Filipino) by ABS-CBN Channel 2, as well as in other countries in Asia. There are also three Akazukin Chacha OVAs (Original Video Animations). Unfortunately, CN Asia had finished running the series. How sad... 
Though the anime version is basically the same as the manga version, there's a lot of difference between them. The anime has a very important story that the manga lacks: the magical princess. The powers-to-be at NAS and Tokyo Television, which first ran the series in 1994, decreed it to follow the "majoko" anime format, that is, with the typical magical-princess-who-will-save-the-world stuff. So they added the story of how the evil god Daimaou who took over the whole kingdom and is trying to get rid of Chacha, the kingdom's princess-in-hiding. But his every evil scheme is thwarted by Chacha, who becomes Magical Princess Holyup using the power of love, courage and hope (which is provided by her own Princess Medallion, her friends Riiya and Shiine's Bracelet of Courage and Ring of Hope). Aside from stopping Daimaou's evil deeds, they also have to bring peace and goodness back to the kingdom, and pass to the next grade level too. Not to worry, the trio get a little help from their friends. It also doesn't hurt that some of the bad guys are a little incompetent... 
Another difference are the characters. Some characters in the manga don't appear in the anime version and vice versa. Also, some of the character's backgrounds in the manga are quite different from the anime. Generally, the one in the anime has a little more depth and somewhat a little serious. On the other hand, in the manga, characters are almost always outrageous, funny and downright silly. But then, some ACC fans list that fact as a reason why the manga is better than the anime. Me? I dunno, I haven't read any manga yet... 
So you may ask, what is the manga about? The answer is, well, it's basically about nothing. The stories in the manga are very silly, sillier than that of the anime's are. It has no magical princess, no Daimaou, no serious stuff. It's all about crazy adventures of Chacha and the gang. Even the fights against the "bad guys" are not that serious. Please note the quotation marks--except for Daimaou, there are no really evil guys in ACC, only misunderstood saps. I've list some sites that gives info about the manga in my links page. Since I'm more familiar on the anime, I'll concentrate on the anime version rather than the manga one. 
If you want to know more about the anime and the manga, you can read more details in the links below.
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