Klonoa, Namco’s dream travelling cat with grippy ears thing who starred in several wonderful platformers for the PlayStation 1, 2, Wii and Game Boy Advance, has long been in need of an anime adaptation. Now it’s getting one, courtesy of anime production company Henshin, Inc.
Up until March of 2014, Henshin, Inc. founder Rob Pereyda worked at Bandai Namco. Now he’s got the license for one of his former employer’s most unique characters. Rob, who emailed Kotaku last night to spread the news, will be producing an animated feature based on Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, the 1997 2.5D platformer starring whatever Klonoa is exactly.
“Klonoa is a late 90s video game icon, representing that special sense of hope and adventure we all collectively once had,” said Pereyda via official announcement. “We are honored to be entrusted by Bandai Namco with this franchise, and will work hard to do justice to the characters.”
Rob is joined by Hitoshi Ariga, Pokémon character designer and author of manga adaptations of Mega Man and The Big O. He’ll be co-roducing, writing and doing the character design for the animated feature.
No word on a release date for animated Klonoa, but it will be a happy day when it arrives. Waa-hoo!