ABEMA to Marathon Broadcast Aikatsu!, Tamagotchi!, Shugo Chara! for Free
The special groups three franchises that defined Heisei-era girls' anime, and the free one-week window after each broadcast makes the full runs accessible to a new generation of viewers on a major streaming platform.
Key Facts
- ABEMA announced the "Heisei Girls' Anime Special" on August 14, 2026, as the third week of its "Anime 200 Titles Free Festival Every Week" project.
- The Aikatsu! marathon starts at 2:30 a.m. on August 17, 2026, covering all 178 episodes of seasons 1 through 4 plus the first film.
- The Tamagotchi! marathon starts at 1:00 p.m. on August 17, 2026, featuring the first series that aired from 2009 to 2012.
- The Shugo Chara! marathon starts at 11:00 p.m. on August 17, 2026, covering the first and second seasons.
- All three works are available for free for one week after their broadcast on ABEMA's Family Anime 3 channels.
Reporting from 2 sources: Denfaminicogamer, Anime Anime.
ABEMA announced on August 14 that it will hold a "Heisei Girls' Anime Special" as the third week of its August "Anime 200 Titles Free Festival Every Week" project. Starting late on August 16, the streaming service will run marathon broadcasts of Aikatsu!, Tamagotchi!, and Shugo Chara! on its Family Anime 3 channels. Each work will be available for free for one week after broadcast. The Aikatsu! marathon begins at 2:30 a.m. on August 17 and covers all 178 episodes of the first through fourth seasons, plus the first film, Aikatsu! The Movie. The Tamagotchi! marathon starts at 1:00 p.m. on August 17, featuring the first series that aired from 2009 to 2012, including the "Lovely Tamatomo Arc," "Happy Harmony Arc," and "Collect Tama Heart Arc." The Shugo Chara! marathon begins at 11:00 p.m. on August 17, covering the first and second seasons of the anime based on PEACH-PIT's manga from the girls' magazine Nakayoshi. The festival runs four consecutive weeks in August, offering about 200 popular anime titles for free with a different theme each week.
The "Heisei Girls' Anime Special" is the third week of ABEMA's August festival, which runs four consecutive weeks and offers roughly 200 anime titles for free. The lineup targets nostalgia for the Heisei era, picking series that were popular with children at the time.
Aikatsu! covers the complete TV run of 178 episodes across four seasons, following protagonist Ichigo Hoshimiya in the first two seasons and Akari Ozora in the third and fourth. The first film is included, but only the first film is free; the TV series is the full set. The series is known for its sports-perseverance story of girls aiming to become top idols, with depictions like characters climbing cliffs in an inhuman way that often become topics of discussion.
Tamagotchi! focuses on the first series that aired from 2009 to 2012, which is one of several anime adaptations of the electronic game that became a social phenomenon. The included arcs are "Lovely Tamatomo Arc," "Happy Harmony Arc," and "Collect Tama Heart Arc."
Shugo Chara! covers the first and second seasons of the anime based on PEACH-PIT's manga from Nakayoshi. The opening's nostalgic line, "All children have an egg in their hearts...", is highlighted in the announcement.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 2 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.