Image source: Pui Pui Molcar anime’s website — via Anime News Network
The official website for Shinei Animation's Pui Pui Molcar stop-motion anime series announced on Monday that the franchise is getting a new special to commemorate its fifth anniversary. Creator Tomoki Misato is returning to direct for the franchise for the first timesince the anime's first season. He is also writing the screenplay. The website unveiled ateaser trailer and visual featuring Potato:
The story revolves around Choco, whose birthday is on the same day as the announcement, August 10.
The stop-motion series premiered in January 2021 within TV Tokyo's Kinder TV children's variety program. The series centers on guinea pigs who have become cars (the title word "Molcar" combines "car" with "morumotto," the Japanese word for "guinea pig" and a variant of the English word "marmot"). Netflix began streaming the series worldwide outsideof some Asian territories in March 2021. Tobidase! Narase! Pui Pui Molcar, the series' compilation film, opened in Japan in July 2021.
The series utilizes stop-motionanimated puppets made of wool felt.
This series marked Misato's directorial debut on an animated television series. Misato also wrote the script, and he worked on thestoryboards along with Hana Ono and Kei Sato. The series' animators included Misato, IkukoIwatsuki, Kei Sato, and Makoto Takano. The artists included Misato, Ikuko Iwatsuki, Kei Sato, Harune Satō, and Michiko Kaihatsu. Shōta Kowashi composed the music.
PuiPui Molcar the Movie: MOLMAX, the franchise's film animated with 3D CG as opposed to thestop-motion animation like the series, opened in Japan in November 2024.
Thefranchise also inspired the Pui Pui Molcar Mogu Mogu Parking smartphone game, which launched in July 2021.