Mameshiba Spinoff Oyatsushiba Sets November 14 YouTube Debut

Oyatsushiba, a short web anime spinoff of Kim Sukwon’s Mameshiba character franchise, premieres on YouTube Friday, November 14. It arrives at 6:00 p.m. (4:00 a.m. EST).

The staff calls its 20 weekly episodes the “first batch.” Each runs about one minute.

KaKa Creation’s KaKa Technology Studio animates the series, which combines bean trivia with sweet comedy.

Oyatsushiba’s characters take the shapes of snacks, or “oyatsu” in Japanese. Each shares its own trivia.

The cast includes:

• Akari Kitō as Daifuku Shiba, inspired by sweet bean rice cake.
• Honoka Inoue as Ichigo Daifuku Shiba, inspired by strawberry rice cake.
• Natsuki Hanae as Mame Daifuku Shiba, inspired by whole-bean rice cake.
• Miku Itō as Matcha Daifuku Shiba, inspired by green tea rice cake.
• Takuma Nagatsuka as Yaki Daifuku Shiba, inspired by toasted rice cake.
• Kotone Izumi as Ohagi Shiba, inspired by red bean rice cake.
• Yumiri Hanamori as Sakura Ohagi Shiba, inspired by cherry rice cake.

Content creator duo MofMofMo is creating the music.

Mameshiba literally means “bean-shiba.” Its mysterious creatures fall somewhere between beans and Shiba dogs. Each character has a different piece of trivia, adding a pun on “mamechishiki,” the Japanese word for trivia.

The popular characters began starring in animated television shorts in Japan in 2008. Dentsu brought them to the United States in 2009.

Viz Media released these books in North America:

• Mameshiba: On the Loose!, a graphic novel.
• Mameshiba: We Could Be Heroes, a graphic novel.
• Meet Mameshiba, a character guide.