Three of Chiikawa’s characters wave to the camera. Photo credit: Chiikawa Anime
Chiikawa, short for Nanka Chiisakute Kawaii Yatsu (Something Small And Cute), a manga series serialized online on Twitter by Nagano, has confirmed its anime adaptation for April 2022.
Chiikawa is a huge hit in Japan, with his Nagano posts garnering an average of over 80,000 likes and the series is the best-selling series on Amazon despite only having two tank boons out so far. The series is kind of a nonsense comedy, combining cute characters with disturbing situations to create both heightened comedy and really touching emotional moments with little to no dialogue. Instead of talking, the characters usually communicate in sound effects – think of the series as the anti-Pop Team Epic in terms of execution.
Chiikawa is no stranger to collaborations either – the series is known for doing a lot of collaboration cafes, releasing merch in various anime retailers and even pop-up shops all over Tokyo. The official merchandise account alone has more than 150,000 followers, reflecting the popularity of the series. It’s no wonder it was picked up for an anime!
The animation studio behind the project is Doga Kobo, known for their work on Nozaki-kun, YuruYuri, Umaru-chan, Love Lab by Monthly Girls and Not Just A Cutie by Shikimori. They are characterized by their expressive animation and focus on moe, romcoms, comedy and yuri anime. With that focus, it will be interesting to see how they tackle Chiikawa’s characters, who are some of the best-selling LINE stamps due to their expressiveness.
Who is the staff behind Chiikawa?
As mentioned, Doga Kobo is the studio behind the project. Takenori Mihara will direct, known for their work on Itoshi no Muco, another life comedy series. Haruka Aoki makes her voice acting debut as Chiikawa. Shugo Tokumaru, a Japanese singer-songwriter, will work with Chiikawa on his first-ever anime composition project. He is known for how much his songs are used in Japanese commercials and how he makes all of his instruments by hand, so it will be interesting to see how he approaches the process of scoring an anime.
When will the anime air?
Chiikawa is currently scheduled to starts broadcast on April 4, 2022 via Fuji Television’s morning news program Mezamashi Terebi. The number of episodes for the series is as yet unknown – it is possible that it will air as a morning program with a shorter runtime.
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