About

Pui Pui Molcar is a Japanese children's stop motion television series about guinea pigs that are also cars, represented through puppets. The show is produced by Shinei Animation, known for Doraemon. The term "molcar" comes from a combination of the Japanese word "morumotto" (guinea pig) and "car," whereas "pui pui" represents the sounds guinea pigs make. The show has no dialogue, instead using actual guinea pig noises for interactions. Each episode is around 2 minutes in length.

History

On November 27th, 2020, Animation Business Journal^[1] published an article announcing Pui Pui Molcar. On the same day, molcar-anime.com,^[2] the show's official website, published their first piece of news and an interview with the show's director, Misato Tomoki. On November 30th, 2020, Anime News Network^[3] published a similar article.

On December 11th, TVアニメ『PUI PUI モルカー』公式, the show's official YouTube page, posted a trailer for the series, garnering over 197,000 views in a month (shown below).^[4] The trailer was uploaded to YouTube^[5] by BANDAI NAMCO Arts Channel, garnering an additional 864,000 views in the same span of time.

On January 5th, 2021, the first episode of Pui Pui Molcar debuted.

Online Presence

Pui Pui Molcar has been well-received by fans, regularly receiving praise for its use of stop motion and the character design. On My Anime List,^[6] the series has an aggregate rating of 7.23 based on 333 users as of January 25th, 2021. On January 21st, Kara Dennison published a positive review of the first episode of the series to Otaku Magazine USA.^[7] A number of clips introducing the series' characters have hit over 1 million views on YouTube^[12][13] via the BANDAI NAMCO Arts Channel (examples shown below, left and right).

Fan Art

The series inspired a considerable fan art community online.

On Januar 11th, 2021, On January 15th, @ぼ😷 uploaded an original piece of fan art to Pixiv,^[13] garnering over 5,200 views and 290 hearts in 2 weeks (shown below, left). @leeknowtheworld uploaded a series of fan art On January 19th, @wwofmoi tweeted^[12] an original piece of art depicting the ambulance molcar, garnering over 700 likes in 6 days (shown below, right).

Memes / Crossovers

Pui Pui Molcar has inspired a number of memes and humorous crossover images based on the series. On January 12th, 2021, @2go_ tweeted^[8] a piece of fan art combining the show with Crazy Taxi, garnering over 6,200 likes and 3,500 retweets in 2 weeks (shown below).

On January 19th, @JP_hetzer_G2 tweeted^[9] a video edit combining Pui Pui Molcar footage with footage from the TGFbro video "Extreme Christmas Party In A Moving Van! *CONCUSSION*" garnering over 80,000 likes and 37,300 retweets in 6 days (shown below, left).

On January 22nd, Ridley 漫画の女 posted a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure themed crossover to Facebook^[11] (shown below, left). On January 23rd, @KSUWABE tweeted^[10] a crossover photoshop of Pui Pui Molcar and Grand Theft Auto 5, garnering over 33,900 likes and 9,700 retweets in 2 days (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References