Rilakkuma Returns to Netflix with New Stop-Motion Animated Series

If you enjoyed last year’s Rilakkuma and Kaoru Netflix original series (like me!), well you’re in for a treat: Netflix Anime Festival 2020 has announced that the lovable bear Rilakkuma is set to receive a new series! The series is entitled Rilakkuma’s Theme Park Adventure, with its premiere only stated as “coming soon”.

Netflix describes the new Rilakkuma series as such:

“The series depicts an active day of incidents and meetings that take place when Rilakkuma, Korilakkuma, Kiiroitori, and Kaoru go play in an amusement park that is about to close.”

The new series will be directed by Masahito Kobayashi, who also helmed Rilakkuma and Kaoru. Takashi Sumita and Makoto Ueda will be writing the scripts. Rilakkuma’s kind roommate Kaoru will still be voiced by Mikako Tabe. As with the first Rilakkuma series, the painstaking stop-motion animation in the series will still be done by Dwarf Studio, best known for creating the brown furry mascot Domo-kun. The series will be produced by Dwarf Studio and TYO Inc.

The first Rilakkuma Netflix series, Rilakkuma and Kaoru, was first announced by Netflix in 2017 and was initially slated for a 2018 release. It was eventually moved to an April 19, 2019 world premiere. The series, created using stop-motion animation, had 13 episodes that ran for around 11 minutes each. The series had both English and Japanese dub, with latter featuring Lana Condor as the voice of Rilakkuma’s human roommate.

Anime News Network described Rilakkuma and Kaoru’s story as such:

The character’s story begins when the titular Rilakkuma suddenly appears in the apartment of office worker Kaoru and begins living there, spending every day idling around. He has a zipper on his back, but the contents remain unknown. He likes food like pancakes, omelette rice, pudding, and dango. He lives together with the little white cub Korilakkuma and Kaoru’s pet Kiiroitori (“yellow bird”).

Rilakkuma was created by character designer Aki Kondo and was launched by Japanese company San-X in 2003.

Source: Anime News Network