Puniru Is a Cute Slime (Japanese: ぷにるはかわいいスライム, Hepburn: Puniru wa Kawaii Suraimu) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Maeda-kun. Preceded by a one-shot published in Shogakukan's children's manga magazine Bessatsu CoroCoro Comic in February 2019, the manga started its serialization in Weekly CoroCoro Comic online service in March 2022. Shogakukan has collected its chapters in six tankōbon volumes as of September 2024. The series focuses on the titular character Puniru, a slime girl created by a boy named Kotaro Kawaii during his childhood and wants him to notice her for her cuteness despite him being in love with his junior high school senior. An anime television series adaptation produced by Toho Animation Studio aired from October to December 2024. A second season has been announced.
A young boy named Kotaro Kawaii made a slime as part of a science experiment which came to life. The slime named Puniru resembled a penguin, and her creator thought that was cute despite him not wanting to admit it. Seven years later, Kotaro is now in his second year of junior high and is having a hard time admitting his feelings for his senior, Mami Kirara. In that time, Puniru gained a new ability to morph herself into a human girl to have her creator notice her cuteness again.
Written and illustrated by Maeda-kun, a first one-shot, titled "Cute Puniru Slime" (かわいいぷにるはスライム, Kawaī Puniru wa Suraimu), was published in Shogakukan's children's mangaBessatsu CoroCoro Comic on February 28, 2019.[5]Puniru Is a Cute Slime started its serialization in Weekly CoroCoro Comic online service on March 15, 2022.[6][7] Shogakukan has collected its chapters into individual tankōbon volumes. The first volume was released on July 28, 2022.[8] As of September 2024, six volumes have been released.[9]
An anime television series adaptation was announced on December 13, 2023.[15][16] It is produced by Toho Animation Studio and directed by Yūshi Ibe, with scripts written by Michiko Yokote, Aya Tanaka providing the character designs and Izumi Mori composing the music.[17][18] The series aired on TV Tokyo from October 6 to December 23, 2024.[2][3]Yū Sasahara performed both the series' opening and ending themes: "Gyumu!" (ぎゅむ！) and "Show" (唱, Shō, lit. "chant"), the latter being a cover of Ado'ssong of the same name.[19]
Following the final episode of the series, a second season was announced.[20]
Crunchyroll streams the series under the title Puniru is a Kawaii Slime.[21]Medialink licensed the series in Asia-Pacific (except Australia and New Zealand) for streaming on Ani-One Asia's YouTube channel.[22]
The manga was viewed more than 600,000 times on its online website by March 2022;[31] it rose to more than 3.5 million views by May of that same year,[32] and 7 million by July of that same year.[8] The first tankōbon volume had a first-print run of 100,000 copies.[8]
Notes
^This episode aired at 12:15 a.m. JST, 30 minutes after the original air time.[26]
^This episode aired at 12:25 a.m. JST, 40 minutes after the original air time.[27]
