On the opening day of MIPCOM 2024, the bustling atmosphere at Verrière Californie, Palais 5, Palais des Festivals, witnessed an exciting new chapter in kids’ animation. At 9 am on 21 October, TV Asahi and Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) premiered the first episode of the much-awaited sequel to Obocchama-kun, based on Yoshinori Kobayashi’s 1986 manga. This iconic Japanese series, which gained immense popularity among Indian children during the pandemic, ran out of episodes due to high demand. Recognising its overwhelming success, SPNI and TV Asahi planned for a new set of episodes of the beloved anime classic.
“The show’s popularity brought the four stakeholders together. SHIN-EI Animation, who produced the original episodes, is supervising the new project and handling the pre-production, while TV Asahi Corporation is working on the script with Kobayashi. We are coordinating and have already licensed the episodes. Green Gold Animation is the production company this time,” SPNI senior vice president programming Ronojoy Chakraborty told AnimationXpress.
Chakraborty explained how Sony YAY! initially focused on local productions, faced a disruption in their local content pipeline during the 2020 pandemic. This led them to acquire international shows, one of which was Obocchama-kun. The first season of the show became an instant hit with Indian kids, leading SPNI to acquire all three seasons—156 episodes in total.
Following the humongous response he met TV Asahi and SHIN-EI Animation. Even Kobayashi was super excited and that ultimately led to the finalisation of the deal.
Green Gold Animation founder & CEO Rajiv Chilaka, expressed his excitement about working on such a prestigious project. “When I learnt that Green Gold Animation was responsible for working on this 35-year-old show, it was an honour that TV Asahi and Sony considered us to do the job. Then I started watching the show on YouTube and I fell in love with the character and loved his expressions.”
“The script was challenging, however, working on the project taught the team a lot about Japanese culture,” shared Chilaka. While the production is still going on, this mutual collaboration has been fruitful for both countries. “We even checked with TV Asahi if we could take some creative liberties, and they were okay with that.”
TV Asahi international business department director Makiko Inaba, highlighted the success of the original manga, with 6.3 million copies in circulation. She also explained about unique words used in the show termed ‘Chamanese’. It is the protagonist’s fun way of mixing words, for instance: Arigacho is Arigato (Thank you in English) plus Ghacho (Goose in English).
“It is a simple wordplay but quite unique in Japan and Mr Kobayashi’s sense of humour is very edgy,” she pointed out. For them, it was surprising that Indian kids could relate to the original show and enjoy it.
Inaba’s colleague, Maiko Sumida who is the head of animation sales and development, echoed the sentiment, saying, “It is really deeply moving to see the series revived as a new production, not in Japan but in India after three decades.”
The Obocchama-kun sequel, comprising 26 brand-new episodes (26 x 22’ or 52 x 11’), will continue the adventures that first captured Japanese audiences in 1989. SPNI plans to air the series across India next year on Sony YAY!. TV Asahi will be responsible for the worldwide TV, VOD and licensing & merchandising rights, excluding Japan and India.