STUDIO4℃‘s X (formerly Twitter) account has announced ChaO, a new anime feature where an ordinary office worker finds himself having to marry a mermaid princess. “A future society where humans and mermaids coexist. Stephen, an office worker, is suddenly asked to marry by Chao, a princess of the mermaid kingdom! A 100% pure love story!” reads the synopsis for the film, which will premiere in Japan in summer 2025.
Don’t expect the typical human-upper-half depiction for the mermaids, however. An official image released by the STUDIO4℃ account shows that ChaO‘s mermaids (or at least Chao herself) will be very fishy. asuhiro Aoki (Psycho-Pass: The Movie co-character designer, SAMURAI NOODLES “THE ORIGINATOR” unit director et al.) is directing ChaO, which has character designs and animation direction from Hirokazu Kojima (Shoka, More Than a Married Couple, But Not Lovers ending design and animation). Hiroshi Takiguchi (Weathering With You) is the background art director.
For more conventional-looking mermaids, turn your eyes to Goodbye, Lara, an upcoming Kinema Citrus-produced title directed by Takushi Koide (assistant director, revue costume designer, weapon designer et al. for Revue Starlight and its movie sequel), which was announced last year.
