The Genie Family


The Genie Family is a Japanese anime television series produced by Tatsunoko Production. It aired from October 5, 1969 to September 27, 1970, with a total of 52 episodes on Fuji Television and its affiliates. It tells the story of a boy who finds a bottle with a mysterious power - each time its user sneezes or yawns, a genie will come up and must grant the user's wish. A 1992 Saban Entertainment English dub called Bob In A Bottle was shown internationally and has later spanned into two other spin-off series featuring the show's characters and a sequel titled Genie Family 2020.

Plot

An old bottle has found its way into the household of a 20th-century family, which consists of an elementary school student named Kan and his parents. A genie, Hakushon, and his daughter, Akubi, reside inside it. When Kan finds the bottle, he discovers that a sneeze summons Hakushon and he must grant the wish of whoever sneezed, while a yawn summons Akubi and she must do the same for whoever yawned. Getting wishes granted by either genie may not be a good thing, for Hakushon messes them up due to his own extreme clumsiness, while the more capable Akubi likes to cause mischief by twisting their words and meanings so that something bad happens.

2020 sequel

A new anime television series by Tatsunoko Production and Nippon Animation aired on ytv from April 11, 2020, to September 26, 2020. It is a sequel series that takes place 50 years after the end of the original anime and centers on Akubi and Kantarō, the grandson of the original anime's protagonist. Atsushi Nigorikawa directed the series, with Hiroko Kanasugi handling series composition, Shin Takemoto and Masatsune Noguchi designed the characters, and Takamitsu Shimazaki, Hiroshi Sasaki, and Teppei Shimizu composed the series' music. On May 24, 2020, it was announced that episode 8 and further episodes would be delayed to June 20 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Viz Media licensed the series as Genie Family 2020 and released it on Crunchyroll on October 15, 2020. The anime is also available on Roku, Peacock and Tubi.

Cast

Japanese version (1969)

English version

Spinoffs

The Hakushon Daimaō franchise made a comeback in the 2000s with two animated spinoff series produced by Tatsunoko and directed by Hiroshi Sasagawa, featuring Akubi as the central character and Hakushon as a supporting character.

Yobarete Tobedete! Akubi-chan

In , Akubi befriends a shy young girl named Koron Nemuta, who habitually yawns whenever she is embarrassed, thus summoning Akubi forth from the bottle.

Akubi Girl

In 2006's , Akubi befriends a first-grader named Ruru-chan and attempts to grant her wish of becoming close friends with Itoshi-kun, the boy on whom she has a secret crush.

Crossover

Pandora to Akubi, an anime film crossover between The Genie Family and Monster Strike was released on April 5, 2019.

Other appearances