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Zannen na Ikimono no Jiten Anime Gets New Episodes by Pop Team Epic's Aoki
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
Japanese public broadcaster NHK announced on Friday that the television anime adaptation of the Zannen na Ikimono Jiten (Humorous & Adorable Evolutionary Creatures or literally, Encyclopedia of Pitiful Creatures) book series is getting two new episodes. The five-minute episodes will air on E-Tele (NHK Educational TV), NHK's primarily educational channel, on March 28 at 10:00 a.m. and on March 29 at 9:35 a.m., respectively.
Pop Team Epic series director and scriptwriter Jun Aoki is directing the episodes. Cast members Tesshō Genda and Noriko Hidaka are returning from the first series of episodes.
The original 10-episode series debuted last August. Mariko Tokunaga (Doraemon: Nobita to Midori no Kyojin Den opening animation, Usamaru) directed the anime at Fanworks (Aggressive Retsuko, Ganbare! Lulu Lolo - Tiny Twin Bears) with Yūji Uchiyama (Kami-Usagi Rope) and Tomoya Takashima (Kagewani, Working Buddies!, Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories) as technical directors. Yuri Habuka (Sushi and Beyond) composed the music. Tadaaki Imaizumi, the zoologist who supervised the original books, also supervised the anime.
The book series offers humorous introductions to surprising aspects of living creatures, such as "raccoons don't really wash their food," and "dolphins would drown if they fall completely asleep."
Takahashi Shoten began publishing the book series in 2016, and the resulting three volumes have over 2 million copies in circulation.
Sources: NHK's website, Comic Natalie
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