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Surreal Post-Apocalyptic Animal Manga Donyatsu Gets Anime

Donyatsu, Yuusuke Kozaki's surreal manga about animal/snack hybrids in a post-apocalyptic world, is inspiring a series of anime film shorts that will premiere on June 1.

The "loosely science-fiction adventure" is set in the summer sometime in the 21st century. Tokyo's Shinjuku ward has become a wasteland, void of all humans due to an unexplained catastrophe. What remains are these strange creatures such as "Donyatsu," the half-cat, half-doughnut hybrid, and "Begaru," a feline bagel composite.

Yukari Tamura will play the title character, and Keiji Fujiwara will play Begaru. Junji Majima will voice "Baumcougar," a cougar/Baumkuchen mix, while Saori Hayashi will play "Kumacaron," a bear/macaron hybrid. Hikaru Shiina rounds out the cast as the cat/roll cake "Rōnya."

The anime shorts, each roughly two minutes long, will start running before feature films in Tokyo's Shinjuku Wald 9 and other theaters in the T-Joy chain on June 1. A new short will debut every month from director Mankyū (PUCHIM@S, Tono to Issho, 30-sai no Hoken Taiiku, Kakko-Kawaii Sengen!) and the studio Gathering (PUCHIM@S, Tono to Issho, 30-sai no Hoken Taiiku, Inumarudashi—).

Kozaki launched the manga in Square Enix's Young Gangan magazine in December 2011, and Square Enix published the second compiled book volume this past March.

Kozaki is arguable best known outside Japan for his design work in the Fire Emblem Awakening, No More Heroes, and Osu! Tatakae! Oendan games. He also created designs for the Speed Grapher anime, which led to his role as character designer for Sunrise's Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto. He designed the virtual idol duo Meaw for the Starchild Records label. Kozaki published his first major manga series Kyoko Karasuma - Detective of the Asakusa Police Department in 2002 in the magazine Mystery B-Street. He will appear as a guest at the "Japan Expo, 1st Impact" convention in California in August.

Thanks to Liam for the news tip.

Source: Comic Natalie

Images © Yūsuke Kozaki/Square Enix © Yūsuke Kozaki/Square Enix, Donyatsu Production Committee