A new original net animation series, My Melody & Kuromi, has premiered globally on the Netflix streaming platform. The production brings two of Sanrio’s globally recognized characters to life through the medium of stop-motion animation. The series is a significant undertaking, timed to coincide with and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the My Melody character and the 20th anniversary of Kuromi. This release represents a noteworthy collaboration, produced by TORUKU, a specialized studio founded by the project’s director, in partnership with the acclaimed animation house WIT Studio. The series is directed by Tomoki Misato, an animator who gained international recognition for his work on PUI PUI Molcar, with the screenplay written by Shuko Nemoto. The confluence of these elements—a global streaming launch, the involvement of a prestige studio, a director with a distinct artistic identity, and a major dual-anniversary celebration for the intellectual property—points toward a deliberate and high-stakes corporate initiative. Sanrio, a company known for its meticulous management of its character portfolio, appears to be leveraging this moment as a strategic opportunity. The decision to partner with Netflix provides access to a global distribution network of over 300 million paid memberships in over 190 countries, ensuring maximum international reach. Simultaneously, the engagement of WIT Studio and Tomoki Misato signals a commitment to high production values and auteur-driven content. This combination of commercial and artistic components suggests a calculated strategy to reinvigorate a legacy IP for a modern, global audience that increasingly values high-quality, creator-led productions. The project is positioned not merely as new content, but as a significant event designed to elevate the My Melody and Kuromi brands within the contemporary prestige streaming landscape, cementing their relevance for a new generation of consumers.
A New Story Unfolds in Mariland
The narrative of the series is set in the whimsical, fictional world of Mariland, the established home of the characters. The central conflict originates from a business rivalry that is grounded in the characters’ core personalities. My Melody opens a cake shop that becomes an immediate success, bustling with customers. Directly across the street, the Japanese sweets shop run by her self-proclaimed rival, Kuromi, remains persistently empty. This commercial competition serves as the tangible manifestation of their established dynamic: My Melody’s seemingly effortless, good-natured success contrasted with Kuromi’s striving and resentful ambition. The plot is set into motion by a key inciting incident: My Melody discovers a mysterious, magical pink heart in the forest. This discovery acts as a catalyst, triggering a cascade of strange and disruptive events that begin to affect all of Mariland. The situation escalates from a personal rivalry into a major crisis that threatens the very fate of their town and its inhabitants. Within this overarching plot, a significant event is a competitive sweets-making contest, which introduces a new character, the world-famous pastry chef Pistachio, who serves as the judge. The escalating crisis ultimately forces the two protagonists, who are described as “polar opposites,” to form an uneasy alliance. They must team up to save their home, compelling them to move beyond their personal animosity. The narrative structure functions as a sophisticated allegory for the characters’ internal and interpersonal conflicts. The external, town-wide crisis catalyzed by the magical heart is a metaphor for the destructive potential of their unresolved emotional dynamic. For Mariland to be saved, the characters must first confront and resolve their own issues, which necessitates a shift from a simplistic hero-and-villain framework to a more nuanced and collaborative partnership. This elevates the story from a straightforward adventure to a character-driven drama focused on reconciliation and mutual understanding.
Beloved Characters Reimagined in Stop-Motion
The series centers on the complex relationship between its two title characters, whose personalities are drawn from decades of Sanrio lore and are now being explored with new depth. My Melody, whose birthday is January 18, is consistently portrayed as a straightforward, honest, good-natured, and cheerful individual. Her character is defined by kindness, a love for her friends and family, and a passion for her favorite hobby, baking cookies and almond pound cake. Her most iconic visual feature is her pink hood, a treasured item made for her by her grandmother. In the new series, these established traits are the foundation of her role as a successful and beloved cake shop owner.
In stark contrast is Kuromi, My Melody’s self-proclaimed rival, whose birthday is on Halloween. Her character is built on a foundation of duality. On the surface, she projects a “tomboy” persona; she is mischievous, rebellious, and the leader of a biker gang known as “Kuromi’s 5”. Her visual design reflects this, featuring a black jester’s hat adorned with a pink skull whose expression changes with her mood, and a black devil’s tail. However, this tough exterior conceals a personality that is described as “quite girly”. Secretly, Kuromi is an avid reader of romance novels, diligently keeps a diary to record her feelings, and has a soft spot for cute boys. Her favorite food is pickled shallots, a sharp contrast to My Melody’s love for sweets. This series elevates her from a simple antagonist, a role she largely played in the 2005 anime series Onegai My Melody, to a co-protagonist, placing her complex internal world at the center of the narrative.
Their dynamic is defined as that of “polar opposites” and “frenemies”. While they are rivals, their history suggests a bond that is more complicated than pure animosity. In previous lore, Kuromi has shown concern for My Melody’s well-being, suggesting that their rivalry is a core part of their shared identity. The series appears poised to explore this complexity. The primary thematic exploration of the series is enabled by the inherent duality of Kuromi’s character. While My Melody represents a consistent, almost archetypal form of goodness, Kuromi is an agent of complexity. Her established personality, a bundle of contradictions—tough yet girly, rebellious yet romantic, a leader yet secretly insecure—provides the necessary foil to My Melody’s simple innocence. This dynamic allows the series to delve into its central themes, creating a narrative that is less about a conflict between good and evil and more about the relationship between naive kindness and jaded pragmatism. The cast is rounded out by supporting characters from the Sanrio universe, including My Melody’s best friends, Flat the mouse and My Sweet Piano the sheep, who assist her in the cake shop. The series also introduces the original character Pistachio, the renowned pastry chef whose role as a contest judge adds another layer to the central conflict.
The Vision of Director Tomoki Misato
The selection of Tomoki Misato as the series’ director is a significant indicator of its artistic ambitions. Misato is an award-winning stop-motion animator whose artistic identity is defined by a unique and potent duality. He is widely known as the creator of the viral phenomenon PUI PUI Molcar, a whimsical and charming series about sentient guinea pig-car hybrids that garnered a massive international following for its pure, accessible cuteness. However, his filmography also includes the critically acclaimed short film “My Little Goat,” a work that uses a dark reinterpretation of the “The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats” fairy tale to explore profoundly serious and disturbing psychological themes. His involvement signals that My Melody & Kuromi is engineered to be more than a standard children’s show. It represents a deliberate choice to infuse a “kawaii” intellectual property with auteur-driven, and potentially subversive, depth.
Misato has been explicit about his thematic goals for the series. He intends to use the narrative to pose a central question: “What does kindness really mean?”. The story is designed to explore the ambiguity of good intentions, showing how an act of kindness can sometimes miss the mark or, in being overly considerate, inadvertently cause harm to another person. This theme is explored through the interactions between the two leads. My Melody embodies a pure, consistent form of kindness, but the series will examine moments where this very kindness becomes a source of trouble for Kuromi. This attention to character is matched by his animation technique; Kuromi is animated with comical, snappy movements, while My Melody’s slow, relaxed motions were reportedly more difficult to achieve.
Furthermore, Misato has stated his intention to push the technical and expressive boundaries of the stop-motion medium. He has cited the high-octane action choreography of films like John Wick and the Korean action film The Villainess as direct inspiration for a car chase sequence featured in the series. This reference to intense, kinetic, live-action filmmaking is a potent indicator of his intent to create a startling and memorable fusion of styles, subverting audience expectations of what a story featuring these characters can be. His established directorial style involves packing frames with intricate detail and maintaining a brisk narrative pace, a mindset he has described as cramming as many elements as possible into the short runtime to reward attentive viewing and discourage watching on double speed. Sanrio and Netflix have not hired a generic animation director; they have commissioned a “Tomoki Misato” project. The expectation is that he will apply his signature artistic sensibilities, resulting in a work that is visually appealing to a broad audience but contains layers of thematic complexity and artistic innovation that will resonate with critics and adult viewers.
A Fusion of ‘Kawaii’ Culture and K-Pop
The series is accompanied by a significant musical collaboration that functions as a sophisticated act of cultural and commercial synergy. The theme song is titled “Kawaii (Prod. Gen Hoshino)” and is performed by the globally popular South Korean girl group LE SSERAFIM. The track was produced by Gen Hoshino, a highly respected and influential Japanese musician, actor, and producer. This partnership strategically merges three powerful cultural ecosystems: Sanrio’s established and dedicated character fandom, LE SSERAFIM’s massive global K-pop fanbase, and Gen Hoshino’s artistic credibility within the domestic J-pop market. This deliberate cross-market strategy between major players in the Japanese and Korean pop culture industries is designed to maximize the project’s reach and impact.
The song itself functions as a meta-commentary on the series’ themes and a powerful branding statement. The group LE SSERAFIM has built its brand concept around being “fearless” and empowered, a message that offers a modern contrast to the more traditional, passive perception of “kawaii” (the Japanese culture of cuteness). The fact that this “fearless” group is performing a song explicitly titled “Kawaii” is a purposeful choice. The lyrical theme of the song, as described by group member SAKURA, who is a known fan of Kuromi, “embodies the theme ‘cuteness is strength'”. This collaboration actively redefines “kawaii” for a 21st-century audience. It argues that this aesthetic is not a sign of weakness or submissiveness, but rather a valid and powerful form of self-expression and inner strength. This message aligns the legacy Sanrio brand with contemporary feminist and empowerment narratives, broadening its appeal and modernizing its core message. The collaboration is a significant marketing initiative in its own right, with LE SSERAFIM members, who are themselves fans of the characters, actively promoting the series. The song, for which member HUH YUNJIN co-wrote the English lyrics, is also featured on the group’s upcoming Japanese single, ‘DIFFERENT’, further integrating the series into the mainstream music landscape.
Production and Series Details
The production framework of My Melody & Kuromi underscores its status as a premium, high-investment project. The series consists of a total of 12 episodes, with each episode having an approximate runtime of 13 minutes. This structure is well-aligned with the consumption habits of streaming audiences, creating a concise, binge-friendly season that viewers can easily watch in one or two sittings. The animation production is credited to TORUKU from WIT Studio, with Shuko Nemoto handling the screenplay and Yutaka Yamada composing the music. The involvement of WIT Studio, a titan in the world of 2D anime known for visually spectacular and popular productions, lends its significant reputation and a guarantee of high production values to this project, even through its specialized stop-motion subsidiary. The choice of stop-motion animation is itself an artistic and financial statement. It is a labor-intensive and artistically respected medium that is significantly more time-consuming to produce than more common 2D or 3D computer-generated animation. Opting for this technique signals a commitment to craft and artistry. Every production detail, from the choice of medium and the studio backing to the episode structure, points towards this being positioned as a flagship animated release for both Sanrio and Netflix, designed to be perceived as a high-quality, artisanal product rather than mass-produced children’s programming.
The series premiered worldwide on July 24, 2025, only on Netflix.
