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Gunma-chan Mascot Anime Streams Episode Before October 3 TV Premiere
posted on by Egan Loo
The official website for the television anime based on Gunma Prefecture's mascot character Gunma-chan announced on Thursday that one episode will stream for free before the anime's October 3 broadcast premiere. The tsulunos channel on YouTube will stream a full seven-minute episode from the anime from Friday, September 17 at 6:00 p.m. (5:00 a.m. EDT) until October 2.
The same channel also began streaming the anime's second promotional video on Thursday. The video introduces Gunma-chan and the mascot's colorful daily life:
The dTV and Anime Times services will begin streaming episodes on October 4 at 12:00 p.m. (11:00 a.m. EDT), followed by other services.
Karin Takahashi plays titular protagonist Gunma-chan (center in image above). Aya Uchida and Yui Ogura plays Gunma-chan's friends Aoma (right) and Mimi (left).
Other cast members include:
Mutsumi Tamura as Tama, the vocalist of the rock band Nyaz
The anime will premiere on Tokyo MX, TV Kanagawa, TV Saitama, Chiba TV, Gunma TV, Tochigi TV, Sun TV, and KBS Kyoto on October 3. Gunma prefecture has plans to stream the anime online worldwide with Japanese audio and English, French, and Chinese subtitles after the television broadcast is finished. The show will have 39 episodes with each episode running for seven minutes, and will air on television three episodes at a time (similarly to how the Sazae-san anime airs).
Mitsuru Hongo (Ascendance of a Bookworm, Outlaw Star, World Trigger, Deltora Quest) is directing and scripting the anime at Ascension (Dino Girl Gauko).
The current pony mascot debuted as the "Yūma-chan" mascot for a sports competition in 1994, and became the prefecture's Gunma-chan mascot in 2008. It replaced an earlier Gunma-chan design that the prefecture used since the 1980s.
Sources: Gunma-chan anime's website and Twitter account, Comic Natalie
