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Biglobe to Debut Yutori-chan Anime via Email (Updated)

The Japanese online services company NEC BIGLOBE has announced on Tuesday that it will email a new original anime called Yutori-chan to users starting next March. The story centers around Yutori-chan, a high school girl assigned to a part-time job in the marketing team of a medium-sized toy company called Popū. There, she deal with the generation gaps that separate her from Tsumekomi-chan (another part-time worker and a student at Japanese's most prestigious university, "T Dai") and Daikai-san (the regular employee who oversees Yutori-chan).

BIGLOBE claims that this is the first anime to be distributed by email, although what will actually be sent in each email message from the fictional character Yutori-chan to users is a URL address to a video. There will be a limited free preview of the first four episodes that will be distributed from December 29 to December 31. Along with the videos and the email messages, the project will feature "chats" with the characters, mini-games, presents from the characters, morning wake-up calls, vocal dramas, and other items.

The comedy anime features much of the staff from the Moetan anime, including director Keiichiro Kawaguchi (Hayate the Combat Butler, Zettai Karen Children, Nyan Koi!), original character designer POP, character designer/chief animation director Kouhaku Nishio (ToHeart2) and the anime studio Actas. Joining them is series script supervisor Miya Asakawa (Mars Daybreak, Shonen Onmyouji). Aoi Yūki (Yutori Tanaka) leads the cast that also includes Kana Hanazawa (Shiori Tsumekomichi) and Akeno Watanabe (Reiko Dankain).

Update: More background and story information added.

Image © BIGLOBE © Actas