Danica Davidson
September 16, 2021 
Sometimes places in Japan turn to pop culture when trying to bring attention and tourism to their area. And so Gunma Prefecture not only has a mascot named Gunma-chan, but Gunma-chan is getting an anime adaptation that will soon be available for people everywhere to watch.
The show will officially start on October 3, and it will consist of 39 seven-minute-long episodes. Tomorrow, Friday September 17, a single episode is going to be made temporarily available for people to check out on YouTube’s tsulunos channel. The video will be up until October 2, and is sure to have plenty of kawaii moments for the audiences.
A short trailer has also been released to give us an idea of what to expect from the little mascot in anime form.
Karin Takahashi has been cast as the lead, Gunma-chan. Looking at the cast for friends and associates, Aya Uchida plays Aoma, Yui Ogura plays Mimi, Yuri Yamaoka plays Yayoi-hime, Nozomi Yamamoto plays Kiryū-san, Arisa Kiyoto plays Francoise, Sho Hayami plays Professor Monoshiri, and Mutsumi Tamura plays Tama.
It’s Gunma Prefecture’s aim to soon have the anime streaming globally so that people around the world can see. But they’re going to let the official broadcast happen first. Then they’ll subtitle it into different languages, including English and Chinese, and put it out for streaming.
The anime is being made at Ascension, where Mitsuru Hongo of Ascendance of a Bookworm and World Trigger is working as both the director and scriptwriter for it.
Gunma Prefecture has experimented with mascots, including the pony Yūma-chan mascot who premiered in 1994. This pony design was turned into Gunma-chan in 2008. Another version of Gunma-chan had come out in the 80s but is no longer used.
Are you interested in checking out this anime when it streams?
Source: ANN
____
Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, and its sequel, Manga Art for Intermediates, with professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
