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AKB48's Watarirouka Hashiritai 7 to Be Animated in Shin-chan
posted on by Egan Loo
Watarirōka Hashiritai 7, a sub-group of the all-female idol group AKB48, will be animated for guest appearances in the Crayon Shin-chan television series on March 9 and 16. Mayu Watanabe, Aika Ōta, Haruka Nakagawa, Ayaka Kikuchi, Mika Komori, and Misaki Iwasa will appear as their animated selves in the two-episode story arc titled "Uchū Kazoku Nohara Da zo" (We're the Nohara Space Family). This will be the first time that members of AKB48 will appear in anime as themselves.
Watarirōka Hashiritai 7 goes by the nickname "Warota," and in the upcoming Crayon Shin-chan episodes, the group members will be extraterrestrials born on the planet Warota. They meet the family of the anime's title kindergartener Shinnosuke "Shin-chan" Nohara when the family goes searching for Shin-chan's grandfather Ginnosuke. Shin-chan's grandfather went missing looking for pickling stones on Warota.
Watarirōka Hashiritai 7 is also contributing the theme song for Crayon Shin-chan: Arashi o Yobu! Ora to Uchū no Princess, the 20th Crayon Shin-chan film which will open on April 14. The sub-group's ninth single, "Kibō Sanmyaku" (Hope Mountains), has been the opening theme song of the Crayon Shin-chan television series since November.
Watanabe, a self-professed anime fan who goes by the nickname "Mayuyu," said that she was excited to be voice-acting for an anime for nearly the first time, especially for an anime she has always watched since she was little. She is also starring in the AKB0048 television anime this April.
Source: Cinema Today
Image © Yoshito Usui/Futabasha, Shinei, TV Asahi, ADK 2012
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