Software developer BeeWorks announced on Thursday that its Osawari Tantei Nameko Saibai Kit ( Mushroom Garden ) smartphone game will receive a television anime adaptation titled Nameko ~Sekai no Tomodachi~ (Nameko ~A Friend of the World~). The anime will premiere on April 10 in NHK E-TV's Nyanchū World Hōsōkyoku Sunday children's television program as a short anime with three-minute episodes.

The anime's newly opened official website is streaming a video of Haruka Fukuhara announcing that she will voice Nameko in the anime.

Aside from Fukuhara, the rest of the announced cast includes:

Atsumi Tanezaki as Love Nameko

Mayumi Iizuka as Pero

Kunihiro Kawamoto as Nameko-senpai

Kouki Miyata as Robo Nameko

Hiroshi Watanabe ( Slayers - The Motion Picture , Shining Tears X Wind , Hetalia The Beautiful World ) is directing the anime at Studio DEEN. Natsuko Takahashi ( You're Under Arrest: Full Throttle , Moyashimon , Norn9 ) is in charge of the series' scripts alongside Tomohito Ōsaki ( Naruto: Sakura's Story novel). Shingo Kawai designed the characters.

The official website notes that the world and story of the television anime will be slightly different from the one presented in the game. The anime will center on a Nameko forest, where different kinds of Nameko from all over the world gather. Nameko and his friends, who live in the forest, decide to tell people about the forest's charm by becoming guides, forming the group "Universal Rangers of Nameko Forest." The Nameko that come from all over the world are all unique, with their own personalities.

The game was previously adapted into a 13-episode OVA in 2013.

In the original app, the player harvests a crop of 30 or more different mushrooms. The game employs touch gestures similar to BeeWorks' Touch Detective game. The original app is available for both iOS devices (such as the iPhone and iPad) and Android devices. It was downloaded 2.7 million times for iOS in its first year, and it became available for Android devices in December 2011. Currently, the game has been downloaded 41 million times.

[Via Otasuke]