Powerpuff Girls Z, known in Japan as Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z is a Japanese television anime adaption based upon the American animated television series The Powerpuff Girls.
The anime is produced by The Japanese Cartoon Network Corporation, Toei Animation, and Aniplex; with Yoshiya Ayugai and Mark Buhaj of Cartoon Network, Hiromi Seki, Hideo Katsumata producing, Hiroyuki Kakudou directing and Miho Shimogasa (of Sailor Moon fame) doing character design. As production occurs in Japan, Craig McCracken, the original creator of The Powerpuff Girls, is not directly involved in this project.
The series, an anime reimagining of The Powerpuff Girls, debuted in Japan on July 1, 2006, on TV Tokyo, where the Japanese version of the original Powerpuff Girls premiered, as well as its affiliates, replacing Sugar Sugar Rune in its time slot, Saturday at 7:00 a.m. JST. Its final episode aired on June 30, 2007. Its time was replaced by Fight Tension School on July 7, 2007. Since August 1, 2006, it has also aired on AT-X. Since April 1, 2007, the program airs on Cartoon Network in Japan.
The initial order was for about 52 episodes at 30 minutes each. Recently, Nami Miyahara, the voice actress of Miyako/Bubbles, posted an entry on her blog in which she mentions working with the staff and cast of the series after having not worked on the series for so long.[when?] As to whether or not this is referring to more episodes, an OVA, or a movie being produced is currently unknown.[citation needed] Cartoon Network has said it will be showing the anime worldwide. Taiwan became the first country to air the show outside Japan when the show aired there on January 21, 2008, since Taiwan is a country where Japanese pop culture is popular.[citation needed] The Ocean Group has also dubbed the official English version of the show and has been shown on several English-speaking markets; it is unknown if the show will make an appearance in the United States (a few clips from the English dub were recently leaked onto YouTube). A Latin-American dub premiered on August 2, 2008, although a pre-premiere was done on July 13, 2008. Most of the original dubbing cast returned to reprise their roles. Except in episode 41, none of the voices from the Japanese dub of the original Powerpuff Girls returned to reprise their roles for this series. Kazuki Kosakai was the sole exception, and guest-starred as the narrator. His voice is heard at the end of first part of episode 41. The show is currently screening in Australia on Cartoon Network and uses the Japanese title of 'Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z'
In an interview with The Big Spoon on March 2008, Tara Strong, the voice of Bubbles in the original series, stated that Craig McCracken had approached her about acting on a few episodes of the anime.
The manga of the same name was introduced in the August 2006 issue of Ribon, published in July 3, 2006.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
