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Obocchamakun is coming back as Obocchamakun REBORN, an all-new anime series set to air on the TV Asahi network in 2027. Chie Kojiro, who has voiced Chama Goboh since the original show premiered in 1989, returns in the role. A teaser visual and teaser trailer dropped alongside the announcement.
Here’s the part that’ll surprise you: this revival didn’t start in Japan. In 2021, the original anime became a runaway hit in India during the pandemic, and the project got moving on the back of an impassioned pitch from over there. The studio handling production is India’s Green Gold Animation, with Shin-Ei Animation and Sony Pictures Networks India credited as production partners. This is a Japan-India co-production.
The manga started serialization in 1986, which makes this the 40th anniversary. Count from the anime’s 1992 finale and it’s been 35 years without a new episode. Original creator Yoshinori Kobayashi is supervising the whole thing, and the show will reportedly include a stack of brand-new original stories.
I’m from the generation that held entire school conversations in Chama-speak. I greeted people with “oha-yogurt” every morning and got chewed out by teachers for it. Hearing that Chama is coming back with the same voice actually made my hands shake a little. Let’s go through this piece by piece.
When does Obocchamakun REBORN air? Network and production staff
It airs in 2027 on the TV Asahi network. TV Asahi is the presenting producer, and India’s Green Gold Animation is the production studio.
The fact that it’s returning to the same TV Asahi network is a big deal. The 1989 run aired on the same network. Keep the vessel, replace the contents with something entirely new. As brand management goes, that’s the textbook play.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Title | Obocchamakun REBORN |
| Network | TV Asahi network |
| Air date | 2027 |
| Source material | Obocchamakun by Yoshinori Kobayashi |
| Cast | Obocchamakun (Chama Goboh): Chie Kojiro |
| Presented by | TV Asahi |
| Animation studio | Green Gold Animation |
| Production support | Shin-Ei Animation, Sony Pictures Networks India |
Now the caveats. All we’ve been told is “2027” — no season, no day of the week, no time slot. Whether this lands on a Saturday evening or in a late-night block completely changes who the show is aiming at. We’ll have to wait for more.
Why a new series after 35 years? It started with a massive hit in India
The direct reason this revival happened is that the original anime exploded in popularity in India in 2021. A passionate pitch from the Indian side became the starting point for the whole project.
According to the official announcement, Obocchamakun caught on in a pandemic-battered India as a relentlessly cheerful gag anime, and demand for a sequel pushed the project into motion. Not long after, executives from an Indian broadcaster flew to Japan specifically to meet with Yoshinori Kobayashi.
When the Obocchamakun anime rolled out in India in 2021, it became an explosive hit in a country then struggling through the pandemic, embraced as a relentlessly bright and cheerful gag anime. Fans desperately wanted a sequel, and that pressure got the project off the ground. Soon after, executives from an Indian broadcaster came to Japan to meet with Yoshinori Kobayashi. Won over by their passion, he agreed, and an all-new anime worthy of the REBORN name was born as a Japan-India co-production.
Source:AnimeAnime
A legacy Japanese IP getting revived on the strength of overseas success isn’t unusual anymore. But “a foreign broadcaster’s executives personally flew in to win over the original creator” is a level of enthusiasm you rarely hear about. And the result isn’t a remake aimed at Japan. It’s an all-new, co-produced series.
The tagline on the teaser visual is “Kame-back.” — a turtle pun on “come back,” which checks out given Chama shows up perched on his usual Jokitai turtle ride, on a stage with gold coins raining down around him. He’s announcing his return in Chama-speak and puns. Nothing has drifted.
Who voices Chama? Chie Kojiro returns for an all-new series under the creator’s supervision
Chie Kojiro returns as Chama Goboh. She’s the same performer who has voiced the character since the original anime began airing in 1989.
Kojiro reportedly accepted on the spot, saying she could “still go full throttle” and wanted in. A comment looking back on the recording sessions has also been released.
Thanks to having more experience than I did back then, I was able to get more deeply involved in the work alongside the staff. It really felt like we were making it together, and the recording booth was so much fun I could hug it.
Source:AnimeAnime (comment from Chie Kojiro)
She caps it off with “Pokkun is back, bwai! Everybody watch, kuri-kuri!” Turns out there was never any reason to worry about whether she could still rattle off that patter after 35 years. Kobayashi himself praised her voice, saying the “power in her voice isn’t normal” and that “Chama’s voice is just too intense. Being able to still do it with the same voice today is an incredible thing.”
Content-wise, the series will reportedly pair classic manga episodes that were never animated with a large batch of original stories supervised from top to bottom by Kobayashi. In other words, this isn’t a show padding itself out by re-animating old episodes; new material is being written from scratch. In the teaser trailer, Chama greets viewers with “gobusa-tango” and signs off with “oha-yogurt.” The density of Chama-speak is exactly where it used to be.
What is Obocchamakun? The Showa-era memory of a language that became a phenomenon
Obocchamakun is a gag manga by Yoshinori Kobayashi that began serialization in monthly CoroCoro Comic in 1986 and came to define comedy across the late Showa and early Heisei eras.
The main character is Chama Goboh, heir to the globe-spanning Goboh financial empire. It’s a slapstick comedy about a kid whose wealth defies all common sense dragging everyone around him into his outrageous gags. Its real strength, though, was that it never stopped at the jokes. Episodes about friendship and genuine human warmth piled up out of his relationships with family and classmates.
When the anime launched on the TV Asahi network in 1989, it became a national hit, and “Chama-speak,” the character’s made-up personal dialect, turned into a full-blown craze among kids. “Oha-yogurt” and “sonna banana” were flying around classrooms and street corners. The manga won the children’s category of the 34th Shogakukan Manga Award. The anime wrapped up in 1992.
I took that Chama-speak craze right between the eyes. Back then everyone was swapping out word endings for no reason at all, and to any adult in earshot it must have been unbearable. When I told my skate buddies Chama was coming back, only the guys in their 40s latched onto it with any real intensity. That gap in temperature tells you exactly how far this show’s reach extends.
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Obocchamakun REBORN: everything we know so far
To recap: Obocchamakun REBORN is an all-new anime series airing on the TV Asahi network in 2027. It’s based on the manga by Yoshinori Kobayashi, presented by TV Asahi, produced at Green Gold Animation, with Shin-Ei Animation and Sony Pictures Networks India providing production support as a Japan-India co-production.
Chie Kojiro returns as Chama Goboh. Along with manga episodes that were never animated, the series will include a large batch of original stories supervised throughout by Kobayashi. It arrives 40 years after the manga debuted in 1986, and 35 years after the original anime signed off in 1992 (as of October 2026, based on official announcements). Details on the time slot haven’t been revealed.
Two things earn this project real credit. First, putting Chie Kojiro back in the Chama role. Chama-speak is a bit of vocal craft, not text on a page, so swap the voice and you’ve swapped out the core of the show. Second, refusing to settle for re-animating the old run and instead building a production that writes new stories with the creator supervising every page. That’s a design worthy of the word “REBORN.” On the other hand, an India-originated project made at an Indian studio carries the real possibility that the art style and comedic timing shift away from the original. How a Japan-India co-production handles the pauses in a gag is not something a teaser trailer can tell you.
It airs in 2027. If you grew up speaking Chama-speak, your job now is to wait on the time-slot announcement.
Snicker Kitamura
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