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Chibi Godzilla Character Gets Its 1st TV Anime on April 1
posted on by Joanna Cayanan
A website launched on Thursday to announce the television anime for the Chibi Godzilla character titled Chibi Godzilla no Gyakushū (Chibi Godzilla Raids Again, an apparent reference to the second Godzilla film). The website streamed the anime's teaser promotional video, which reveals the film's April 1 premiere date. The website also revealed the key visual, main cast, and staff for the anime.
The anime will premiere on April 1 at 7:00 a.m. (March 31 at 6:00 p.m. EDT) on TV Tokyo's Iniminimanimo programming block. (Iniminimanimo, a reference to the English counting-out rhyme "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe," has aired previously anime series aimed at children such as Pui Pui Molcar Driving School.)
The anime's cast includes:
Taketo Shinkai is directing the anime at Pie in the sky, and Chiharu Sakazaki is designing the characters.
A series of animated shorts titled "Tadaima! Chibi Gojira" (I'm Home! Chibi Godzilla), based on the Chibi Godzilla character, streamed on the Godzilla (Gojira) franchise's YouTube channel in 2020.
Chibi Godzilla debuted in Chiharu Sakazaki's Ganbare Chibi Gojira (Do Your Best, Chibi Godzilla) picture book in October 2018. Sakazaki launched a second picture book Nakayoshi Chibi Gojira (Close Friends, Chibi Godzilla) in May 2019.
The Chibi Godzilla project celebrated the 65th anniversary of the Godzilla franchise. The project launched in July 2018, and it has since appeared on a wrap of the Shinjuku Sumitomo Building, as a kigurumi character at 2018's "Gojira Fes" (Godzilla Fest) event, in animated shorts during theater intermission, and for other projects. Before designing Chibi Godzilla, Sakazaki was known for designing characters such as the Suica commuter card's penguin and Chiba Prefecture's official mascot Chi-ba-kun.
Sources: Chibi Godzilla no Gyakushū anime's website, TOHO animation's YouTube channel, Comic Natalie
