Kuwagata Tsumami (partially found Japanese web anime; 2005-2010)

DVD Cover

Status: Partially Found

Kuwagata Tsumami (くわがたツマミ) (aka Kuwagata Tumami) is a Japanese flash comedy shorts anime created by Rareko and debuted in 2005. It revolves on Tsumami, a little girl who is half-human, half stag beetle. She is the daughter of a human woman and a stag beetle man. Some other characters are also human-insect hybrids. There were 84 episodes released between 2005 and fall 2010.

The series gained popularity in Japan after a screening at the JAWACON 2005 convention. It was initially hosted on its own website, and from 2007 the Japanese website Livedoor. In 2007, a DVD which included the first 30 episodes and bonus features was released. Other merchandise included toys, t-shirts, a guide book, and a Nintendo DS game.

The series became obscure and partly lost, and Rareko is now better known for directing the more famous anime series Gakkatsu! and Aggretsuko. The Livedoor sites for Kuwagata Tsumami and its sister series Soft Tank had shutdown in 2012. Due to the DVD containing the first 30 episodes, episodes 31 to 84 are most likely lost. However, only the first nine episodes were uploaded online at the time and none of the other 21 on the DVD were uploaded yet. The episodes' details are found on at least one Japanese blog, not to mention Internet Archive pages of the series' official site.

The opening and only nine episodes were able to be found on websites such as Niconico and YouTube. The archived official website also contains a flash animated introduction (in Japanese) narrated by Tsumami.

On March 15, 2021, the first thirty episodes were ripped from a DVD found on eBay by user ChenArchive and uploaded onto YouTube. Along with episodes 1-30, there were also special features that were shown such as a "secret animation," an origin story taking place before the events of the series, and the original opening.

On January 24th, 2023, episodes 31-46 were discovered on a Japanese website. However, episode 37 was most likely deleted from the site, as it is inaccessible. Episodes 37 and 47-84 remain lost for now. The new episodes were uploaded to the Internet Archive and YouTube.

External Links

• Japanese Wikipedia page on くわがたツマミ. Retrieved 14 Aug '19
• Internet Archive listing of the official website dated May 2012. Retrieved 14 Aug '19
• Internet Archive listing of the official website dated November 2010. Retrieved 14 Aug '19
• The DVD's contents posted on Youtube Retrieved 16 Mar '21
• Site where episodes 31-46 were found Retrieved 24 Jan '23
• Internet Archive Collection of the found episodes Retrieved 24 Feb '23

Videos

The first thirty episodes and some special features ripped from the DVD