Natsuki Hanae Heads Up a Cast Built for Family Comedy
The voice cast is the real headline for anime fans, and it's stacked with names international viewers will recognize. Natsuki Hanae (Tanjiro Kamado in Demon Slayer) plays Shin, the family's know-it-all older brother at the center of the series. Saki Fujita (the voice of Hatsune Miku, and Ymir in Attack on Titan) plays his younger sister Juri, described in the announcement as a food-obsessed free spirit with a seriously quirky personality. Maria Naganawa (Kanna in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid) completes the trio as Shin's cousin Gu.
All three shared comments with the announcement. Hanae said recording the show brought back memories of things he learned as a kid and taught him plenty he never knew, while Fujita called the powerful Juri a blast to play and pitched the series as family viewing. Naganawa said the energy of the gag scenes made playing Gu alongside the cast a treat.
A Korean Webcomic Juggernaut Lands on Japanese YouTube
Tsukame! Rika Daman (つかめ！理科ダマン) is the Japanese edition of a Korean learning manga phenomenon. The pitch is simple: kids laugh their way through gag stories and absorb real science along the way. Word of mouth from children and parents ("my kid who hates studying reads it on his own") pushed the series to a combined 4 million copies in Japan and Korea. The original webcomic launched in Korea in 2009, racked up 3.3 billion cumulative pageviews, and has already been adapted into both an anime and a drama there. The Korean anime topped ratings on Tooniverse, a kids' cable channel.
According to publisher Magazine House's PR TIMES release, the Japanese rollout re-edits that Korean-produced animation into short-form episodes for a newly opened official YouTube channel. Each video pairs a comedy story with a closing segment that teaches the science behind it. Episodes 1-3 go live at noon JST on July 16, 2026, and after that a new episode drops every Saturday.
A New Volume and Two Science Museum Tie-Ins
The anime launch shares its date with a new book. Volume 12, subtitled Saikyō Robot Kessen! Hen (roughly "The Ultimate Robot Showdown"), hits Japanese shelves July 16 at ¥1,320. Its theme is programming: Shin and company battle rivals in a dinosaur-robot tournament while the story works AI, algorithms, and coding concepts into the gags. The series is credited to the Korean duo シン・テフン (likely Shin Tae-hoon, story) and ナ・スンフン (likely Na Seung-hoon, art), with a Japanese translation by 呉華順.
Two museum collaborations follow. From July 18 through September 6, 2026, the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo will hand out an exclusive map in which Rika Daman characters guide visitors through recommended exhibits, plus photo spots for snapshots with the characters. Then from July 22 through August 2, Nagoya's Denki no Kagakukan (an electricity-themed science museum marking its 40th anniversary) hosts a stamp rally where visitors can earn collaboration goods, as well as a special live experiment show featuring Shin himself.
Looking Ahead
After the three-episode premiere on July 16, the schedule settles into one new episode every Saturday on the official YouTube channel, free to watch. The press release says nothing about subtitles or an international rollout, and it makes no mention of an English edition of the manga. For now this one is aimed squarely at Japanese elementary schoolers and their parents, though YouTube distribution means curious overseas fans can check it out the moment it drops.