Animation Studio Doga Kobo announced that an original television anime series titled Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night / Yoru no Kurage wa Oyogenai is in production!
The anime’s official website describes the series as a coming-of-age ensemble drama revolving around a girl trying to find a sense of “self” in Tokyo. As she drifts through Shibuya, a district overflowing with identity in the dead of night, a special encounter changes her fate.
The anime will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doga Kobo and tells original story written by JELEE and character drafts by illustrator/character designer popman3580. Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night anime is being directed by Ryohei Takeshita, who previously worked on Eromanga Sensei at studio Doga Kobo, with scripts by Yūki Yaku, who is the author of the light novel series Bottom-tier Character Tomozaki. The character designs adapted for animation are done by Junichiro Taniguchi who has worked on SING” YESTERDAY” FOR ME and Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru anime.
Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night is set to premiere in 2024.
▍About Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night
The revealed trailer intentionally seemed to eschew any character visuals, with the trailer setting the tone of the anime by showing off blurry VHS-like real-life footage of Shibuya, Tokyo. Overlapping dialogues scripts begin to overflow in the next shot, with character dialogues such as: “I’m a run-of-the-mill high school girl that doesn’t know what she likes,” “I’m a nobody,” and “I want to be my true self” filling the screen up.
While these only hint at the anime’s possible framing around self-reflection and insecurities over indecisiveness, the comments made by scriptwriter Yūki Yaku seem to shed some light on what the story of the anime might revolve around. Yaku wrote on the official website’s segment that: “The girls in the anime find themselves caught in a dilemma between who they want to be and what people around them expect them to be.” Yaku adds that “Perhaps no one knows what they want to do at any moment, especially when everyone is trapped between real-life and social media.”
Director Ryohei Takeshita, in the same comment segment of the website, elaborates further, stating how the original project started with the hope that in this age of being compared to others, the production staff and all associates can “find their favorite thing.” He concluded by saying that he hopes this story reaches many people’s hearts and minds.
▍Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night Anime Staff & Production
Original Work: JELEE
Director: Ryohei Takeshita
Assistant Director: Junichirō Taniguchi
Series Composition: Yūki Yaku
Original Character Design: popman3580
Character Design: Junichirō Taniguchi
Animation: Doga Kobo