Eh, what’s up, kawaii doc?
Animated franchises don’t get much more quintessentially American than Looney Tunes, which made its debut in U.S. theaters all the way back in 1930. But as it approaches its 100th birthday, Warner Bros. Japan has suddenly asked the question: “What would Looney Tunes look like if it was a cute anime series?”
The answer is Looney Tunes Gokko, in which classic Looney Tunes characters have been given kawaii redesigns. Obviously face-of-the-franchise Bugs Bunny is here, and so are Daffy Duck, Sylvester, Tweety, the Tasmanian Devil, the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, and even Lola Bunny, who made her first appearance in 1996’s Space Jam.
▼ As proof of how much Wile E. Coyote is getting into the anime spirit, he’s even begun doing the ninja/Naruto run.
The series of animated shorts is being posted to the Warner Bros. Japan official YouTube channel. As with many cute-character franchises of this sort in Japan, however, there’s no actual spoken dialogue, just murmurs, chuckles, grunts, and other non-vocabulary-based verbal communication, so the storylines should be just as understandable to viewers regardless of whether or not they understand Japanese. For example, the first episode of Looney Tunes Gokko, pictured below, puts a cute, less potentially violent spin on Bugs’ and Daffy’s time-tested routine about whether it’s currently rabbit hunting season or duck hunting season.
The announcement video promises “Your favorite Looney Tunes, in a way you’ve never seen. Sweeter, cuter, but with the chaos you know and love.” And while the first episode is more about Japanese animation aesthetics than Japanese culture, sprinkling in some of the latter as the series goes on is a definite possibility, considering that Tom and Jerry, as part of their own anime version from Warner Bros. Japan, also have animated shorts, with a recent installment involving Tom’s trip to a kaitenzushi/conveyor belt sushi restaurant.
There doesn’t appear to be any set schedule for when new Looney Tunes Gokko episodes will be released, so we’ll just have to keep an eye on the Warner Bros. Japan channel. In the meantime, if you’re curious as to what the opposite of this concept is, taking an iconic Japanese animated series and giving its visuals a heavy dose of Looney Tunes style, there’s the Pokémon Pokétoon project.
Source: YouTube/ワーナー ブラザース 公式チャンネル via Anime News Network/Joanna Cayanan
Top image: YouTube/ワーナー ブラザース 公式チャンネル
Insert images: YouTube/ワーナー ブラザース 公式チャンネル (1, 2)
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