First Look: Kobato.

First Look and PV for the Madhouse anime adaptation of CLAMP’s  Kobato.

[Update: Added OP]

Btw, there’s a new Kobato banner if you haven’t noticed ^^. I’m currently adding Fall banners right now but I won’t bother posting about them but you can catch me giving announcements on Twitter and at the Chat Box on the right sidebar of the site.

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Getting on with the info:

[Source – Wikipedia]

Story:

Kobato is sweet and perky girl, but also extremely naive about the world around her. She has a “mission”, which is to fill a mysterious bottle of hers with the suffering from people’s hearts so her wish to go a certain place that she desires to go can be granted. However, she has a restriction, she is not allowed to fall in love with any person whom she heals the heart of.

Characters and Seiyuu:

Fujimoto, Kobato, Ioryogi [the toy dog] and the Mihara twins

Kobato Hanato [CV: Kana Hanazawa]

Kobato is a strange and naïve girl with a kind heart, never wanting to see someone suffer or get hurt. She is very innocent and dedicated. Despite her role as the titular character, she is a bit of an enigma within the series, as her origins have yet to be explained. She seeks to heal the heartaches of others, resulting in the filling up of a mysterious bottle called a “flask” with the suffering of those people’s hearts so that someday she will be able to go to a certain place that she really wants to go.

Her only restriction appears to be that she cannot fall in love with anyone she heals the heart of. Curiously she also seems to not be allowed to take off her hat in public either, though this has yet to be addressed further. Kobato has a very cheerful and enthusiastic outlook in life and her wanting to aid others in need is very heartfelt and sincere. However, she can also be clumsy, rather clueless, and rash with her actions, and often trips over her own feet, much to Ioryogi’s annoyance. Currently she works at the Yomogi Nursery run by Sayaka, alongside Fujimoto, where she got a job as an assistant not long after starting her task.

Ioryogi [CV: Tetsu Inada]

Kobato’s companion, who appears as a stuffed toy dog that she carries around. He’s actually very foul-mouthed, short-tempered, and cruel, his features twisting horrifically when aggravated or enraged. He tends to scathingly criticize or hit Kobato for her naïveté and stupidity and often calls her “Dobato” (lit. Stupid Dove), Despite the lack of respect he shows Kobato, he will always acknowledge her efforts when he feels she deserves it, and seems to be set on helping Kobato achieve her goal. He is harsh to her and scolds her constantly but is seen to really care for her and comforts her in his own way when she is down, such as patting her head to encourage her.

Kiyokazu Fujimoto [CV: Tomoaki Maeno]

A blunt, sarcastic young man working at the same kindergarten as Kobato. He is also Kobato’s neighbor, living in the same complex under the ownership of Chitose. He has known Sayaka for many years and appears to have strong feelings for her, showing much concern over and being fiercely defensive of her. Upon first meeting Kobato, he is rather suspicious of the unusual girl, as he does not want Sayaka to be hurt by another person. He often pokes fun at and teases Kobato, which is unusual as he generally ignores people he does not like; as a result, Sayaka interprets his actions toward the girl as affection. Regardless of his initial distrust of Kobato, he has shown signs of warming up to her and now seems to care about her well being, shown once when she pretended to have a cold to cover up for Ioryogi, and Fujimoto in response discreetly passed on a bag of cough drops to her. Kobato notes that he appears to be hiding some emotional pain of his own.

Sayaka Okiura [CV: Fumiko Orikasa]

The teacher and principal of Yomogi Nursery, a local kindergarten where Kobato works. She has known Kiyokazu since he was seven, which is when her family adopted him. She also went to the same high school as Chitose. She is a kind and trusting person, willing to let Kobato assist her at the school even with Fujimoto’s obvious mistrust of her. Upon meeting Sayaka, Kobato wishes to heal the apparent emotional pain in her heart. Sayaka is in debt due to an event in the past involving her father; in spite of this she continues to try her best at keeping the school going.

Chitose Mihara [CV: Houko Kuwashima]

The kind and generous landlady of Kobato’s apartment and Sayaka’s old classmate. She is married and has twin daughters, Chise and Chiho. Fujimoto also lives in Chitose’s apartment complex. She is a cross-over character from Chobits

Chiho Mihara/Chiyo [CV: Megumi Nakajima]

Mihara Chitose’s twin daughters, presumably age 11-12. Like their mother, they are crossover characters from Chobits, known in that series as Freya and Chī/Elda. In Kobato, they are normal girls and live with their mother and father. Like many children in the series, they are apparently very fond of Kobato.

Kazuto Okiura [CV: Shinichiro Miki]

A man who has some association with Yakuza. He is noted in the series for smiling a lot and smoking. Okiura appears to be responsible for the constant impending closure of Sayaka’s kindergarten and is also Sayaka’s ex-husband. He seems to enjoy pestering and aggravating Fujimoto, the latter whom despises him for hurting Sayaka in the past. He seems to have developed an interest in Kobato following his first meeting with her. Despite his cheerful and collected nature, he has shown hints of a slightly more sinister side, possibly due to his Yakuza background. Okiura seems to show what may or may not be some genuine concern for Sayaka, despite his continuous threats to close down the school.

Kohaku [CV: Chiwa Saito]

Character from Wish, another CLAMP manga, but is discussed in this series later on.

[Wish profile]: Kohaku is a rather accident-prone angel who has come to Earth in search of her mentor, Hisui. When she gets trapped in a tree and attacked by a crow, she is rescued by Shuichirou, a young doctor. As a result, she feels indebted to grant him one wish but finds the kind doctor is satisfied with all aspects of his life. Thus, she remains with Shuichirou in hopes of repaying him somehow (subsequently getting in other sticky situations as a result).

Because she is only a trainee angel, Kohaku can only maintain a full-size form during the day – at night she shrinks and is only about a foot tall, looking rather like a chibi character. As an angel, she cannot consume anything that came directly from a living organism (ie meat, vegetables, bread) with the sole exceptions being milk and occasionally honey.

Kobato and Kohaku

Kobato [w/ Ioryogi] and Fujimoto. OTP FTW!

Ok, I’m happy with the Kana Hanazawa x Maeno Tomoaki teaming up again since Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~Natsu no Sora~whoa that’s a mouthful. Kyaaa~!!! I’m so excited! I love their chemistry because Maeno-san’s deep voice really compliments Kana-chan’s soft voice.

I would have wished for Rie Tanaka to voice the Chii crossovers but oh well, I like Megumi Nakajima’s voice anyway and I always thought she’ll get a role since she sings for the ED. Now I can imagine what the ED would be like~…

Also, Chiwa Saito fascination, everyone? XDD. Really interesting seiyuu cast overall ^^.

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Staff [Source – ANN]:

Director: Mitsuyuki Masuhara

Series Composition:
Michiko Yokote
Nanase Ohkawa

Script:
Mamiko Ikeda
Miharu Hirami
Reiko Yoshida
Tsutomu Mizushima
Yuka Yamada

Music: Takeshi Hama

Original creator: CLAMP

Character Design: Hiromi Kato

Art director: Hideyuki Ueno

Chief Animation Director: Satoshi Tazaki

Sound director:
Masafumi Mima
Toshihiko Nakajima

Director of Photography: Kōhei Tanada

Animation Supervisor: Morio Asaka

Color design: Harue Ono

Editing: Kashiko Kimura

Theme Song Performance:
Maaya Sakamoto (OP)
Megumi Nakajima (ED)

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OP: “Magic Number” by Maaya Sakamoto [Radio Rip of the full version]

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8A5LZZmW28

PV:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fD6NEi_Czo

Argh! I really can’t wait now!! This just gave back all the Cardcaptor Sakura nostalgia~. KOBATO FTW! Not to mention that as expected, her voice is so cute!!! This is definitely one of the shows I’m definitely locked to watch this Fall.

Catch Kobato. on October 6!