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Russia's Cheburashka Character Gets Japanese TV Anime (Update 2)

The website of the TV Tokyo station has announced that it will premiere the Cheburashka Arere? anime based on the Russian "national character" Cheburashka on October 7 during the Nori-Suta 100% television program. The character comes from Eduard Uspensky's story about a mysterious creature who gets accidentally transported in a box of oranges to Russia.

According to the program's official DVD website, Susumu Kudo (Hoop Days, Kimi ga Aruji de Shitsuji ga Ore de, Mirage of Blaze) is directing off scripts supervised by Michiru Shimada (Before Green Gables, Pénélope tête en l'air, Shugo Chara!). Takahiro Kishida (Arjuna, Baccano!, Serial Experiments Lain) is overseeing the animation at the GoHands studio and designing the characters. Makoto Nakamura (Noramimi, Princess Lover!, ToHeart - Remember my memories) is supervising the project.

Nozomi Ōhashi will play the title character, while Hiroshi Tsuchida will play his crocodile friend Gena. Chō will play the old lady Shapoklyak.

Source: 2channel

Image © Cheburashka Project/Cheburashka TV 2009

Update: More background and story information added. Japan has been planning a remake of Cheburashka since at least 2003. Thanks, roxfan.

Update 2: According to Yahoo!'s Netallica report on the press conference for the project, the anime series will have 26 three-minute episodes. The report also mentions a new movie in 2010, but does not state whether it will be made in Japan or another country. TV Tokyo announced in 2006 that it was making the anime series. That earlier announcement indicated that TV Tokyo and the Frontier Works production company were planning to make a new feature film.