News

Poco's Udon World Anime's 2nd Promo Video Shows Sōta, Poco's Promise

The official website for the Poco's Udon World television anime series began streaming the show's second promotional video on Friday. The end of the video features Sōta and Poco making a promise and pinky-swearing, and then Sōta says, "It's strange Poco. When you're here with me, a lot of things happen, and I start to remember a lot of things."

The anime will premiere on NTV at 25:55 on October 8 (effectively 1:55 a.m. on October 9) and on RNC at 7:00 a.m. on October 16. The show will also air on Sun TV, BS NTV, and NTV Plus. An advance screening will be held at Tokyo's Shinjuku Wald 9 theater on September 22. Another advance screening will also be held in Kagawa (where the story is set).

The show's main cast includes:

Yūichi Nakamura (Clannad's Tomoya Okazaki, Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign's Guren Ichinose) as Sōta Tawara

Shiho Kokido (Sekkō Boys' Miki Ishimoto, Go! Princess Precure's Aroma) as Poco

Takaya Kuroda (Durarara!!'s Simon) as Gaogao-chan

Yui Makino (Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE's Sakura) as Mimi and Shiho Kokido as Momo

Tomokazu Sugita (Gintama's Gintoki) as Shinobu Nakajima

Mai Nakahara (My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU's Haruno) as Rinko Oishi

Jun Fukuyama (Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion's Lelouch) as Shunsuke Fujiyama

Other cast members include:

• Kana Hanazawa (Ange Vierge's CodeΩ46 Xenia) as Sae Fujiyama
• Takaya Kuroda as (Durarara!!'s Simon) as Gorō Hamada
• Shinnosuke Tachibana (D.Gray-man Hallow's Howard) as Hiroshi Nagatsuma
• Kousuke Toriumi (Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal's Nephrite) as Manabu Saeki
• Yu Shimamura (Bungo Stray Dogs' Akiko) as Yukie Saeki
• Kujira (Mr. Osomatsu's Matsuyo) as Fumi Yoshioka
• Yuko Minaguchi (World Break: Aria of Curse for a Holy Swordsman's Mari) as Mai Tanaka (Manabe)
• Kaede Hondo (Regalia: The Three Sacred Stars' Yui) as Nozomi Tanaka
• Hiroshi Naka (World Trigger's Visa) as Sōta's father
• Kikuko Inoue (Amanchu!'s Kino) as Sōta's mother
• Akiko Kimura (High School DxD New's Shinra) as Nakajima's mother
• Yu Kobayashi (Monster Musume's Smith) as Kaeru/Frog

Additionally, actor Jun Kaname (Kamen Rider Agito, Liar game: Reborn), who is from Kagawa Prefecture, is narrating the series.

Seiki Takuno (Sekkō Boys, Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches) is directing the anime at Liden Films. Natsuko Takahashi (My Love Story!!, Moyashimon, 07-Ghost) is in charge of series composition, and Eriko Ito (Sekkō Boys, Danchigai, Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches) is serving as both the chief animation director and the character designer. Yukari Hashimoto (Mr. Osomatsu, Yurikuma Arashi) is composing the music and Yota Tsuruoka (Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club, K-ON!) is serving as sound director. The "piano rock band" Weaver will perform the show's opening theme song, and the four-member pop band Goodwarp will perform the ending theme song.

The anime is based on Nodoka Shinomaru's "heartwarming fantasy" manga Udon no Kuni no Kiniro Kemari (The Udon Country's Golden Furball). The manga takes place in the "udon prefecture" of Kagawa. The series follows Sōta Tawara, a 30-year-old man who was the son of an udon shop owner who has passed away. Sōta goes back to his hometown, but finds a strange lost child inside his father's old shop. As Sōta is taking care of him, the child, named Poco, suddenly grows ears and a tail. The manga follows the human Sōta and the tanuki Poco as they start to live together, meet and connect with others, and grow. The manga's first chapter is available for free online.

Shinomaru launched the manga in Shinchosha's Comic@Bunch magazine in 2012, and Shinchosha published the manga's seventh compiled volume in February. Shinchosha will publish the eighth volume in October.