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Kanashiki Debu Neko-chan 'Local Tale' From Ehime Gets NHK TV Anime in December

The NHK Matsuyama Broadcasting Station announced on March 8 that NHK is producing a television anime based on Ehime prefecture's "local tale" Kanashiki Debu Neko-chan (The Sad and Fat Cat) that will premiere on NHK General in December. The anime celebrates the 80th anniversary of the station.

The anime's story centers on a cat named Maru, adopted by a girl named Anna from a shelter in Matsuyama City. Loved and well fed by the family, Maru gets rounder and fatter every day, spending most of his day sitting by the window and looking at the garden outside. When the family gets a new cat named Cerisier and begins doting on it, Maru gets jealous. In a fight with Cerisier, Maru is hurt by the family's words to him, and follows the advice of another cat to leave and see the world.

Michiya Katō (Okko's Inn compositing director of photography, Odenkun, Nandaka Velonica) is directing the anime at Cyclone Graphics inc. Shinji Takeuchi (Gintama, Fairy Tail 2018 series) is designing the characters.

The "local tale" began as an illustrated story written by Kazumasa Hayami and illustrations by Karin Kanō that was seriailized in the Ehime Shimbun newspaper from April 2018 to November 2018. The character had an art book in 2019, and a new story serialization in the newspaper that ran from September 2019 to June 2020. Shueisha published the collected story in one volume on March 19.

Source: NHK