Chiikawa Pocket Performance: Can This Gamification Of Anime Works Succeed?

As a world-renowned animation industry power, Japan has exported a lot of animation or comics that are outstanding in popularity and quality to the world in recent decades. And with the development of the game industry, the phenomenon of gamification of anime works is also increasing.

In 2020, the comic Chiikawa created by Japanese cartoonists was launched not long ago, and it became popular because of its cute character design and interesting and unpredictable plot. With the broadcast of the animation in 2022, the popularity of this work has risen to a surprising level.

Based on this popularity, Chiikawa continued to launch its exclusive game Chiikawa Pocket in 2025, which was officially launched in the mobile app store on March 27, with a very impressive download volume.

However, it is obvious that most players should be fans of this IP. As for how Chiikawa Pocket performs as a game itself, there seems to be a lot of different opinions.

Cute Style From Anime

Chiikawa Pocket’s character design and art style are basically directly applied from its anime works, which is also a very common practice in the gamification of anime works.

Compared to being a spectator, the difference when playing Chiikawa Pocket is that you can team up with your favorite Chiikawa, Hachiware and Usagi to go on adventures! Earn Chiikawa Pocket gems by defeating Abunaiyatsu and bosses, just like they need to survive through crusades in the comics.

Although the entire series of works seems to hide a subtle dark world background, most of the time the game is still dominated by relaxed and cute character interactions, which largely restores the style of the original work.

The Gameplay Itself Lacks Creativity

If you just like Chiikawa, then the game should not disappoint you too much, but to be honest, if you evaluate it purely from a game perspective, Chiikawa Pocket’s performance is really mediocre.

Simple style does not affect the birth of good games - Stardew Valley and Terraria are both splendid examples. Although there are different evaluation criteria for original games and games derived from anime works, compared with the fun of the original work, Chiikawa Pocket almost makes you lose the desire to play.

Players in the community have said that the game itself is boring, there is a lack of interaction between the characters, the plot lacks logic, and the bosses and weapons in the battle seem to be borrowed from the comics - besides Chiikawa characters, other game content has almost no charm.

To be honest, this is actually a common problem in most anime works after gamification. After all, the purpose of the developer is usually just to make a profit through the popularity of the original work itself, rather than to make a good game for you.

Therefore, if you are already accustomed to this phenomenon and like Chiikawa characters very much, it is also good to play it, just like raising a group of cute little animals on your mobile phone!