Matt Schley
June 3, 2025 
ChaO, the new anime film by Studio 4°C, is headed to North America via everyone’s favorite kiddos. Gkids has licensed the rights to the film, which is premiering at Annecy later this month.
Here’s how the kids describe the film:
From acclaimed Japanese animation production house Studio 4°C comes a wild romantic comedy and true “fish out of water” story. In a futuristic world where humans and mermaids coexist, ChaO follows Stephan, a mild-mannered office worker at a shipbuilding company, whose life is upended when he is suddenly proposed to by Chao — a princess from the mermaid kingdom. With no time to make sense of what’s happening, Stephan soon finds himself living with the unpredictable, wholehearted Chao. As her sincere love begins to break down his emotional barriers, an unexpected and touching romance begins to unfold.
ChaO stars Ouji Suzuka as human protagonist Stephan and Anna Yamada as mermaid kingdom princess ChaO.
As previously reported, it’s directed by Yasuhiro Aoki (character designer, Psycho-Pass) and hits Japanese theaters August 15. When it announced the film, Studio 4°C mentioned it had been working on the film for seven years, and that it has over 100,000 frames of hand-drawn animation.
Source: ANN
