Ask John: What Is Di Gi Charat?

Question:
I have seen a lot of something called “Di Gi Charat” mainly in import magazines. I think it is an anime series, but I have never really heard about it. What exactly is it?

Answer:
Ten year-old cat-suit wearing Di-Gi-Ko (with her friends Petit-Charat and Gemma in tow) came to Earth from the planet Di-Gi-Charat with hopes of becoming an actress. Faced with high rents, little prospects and no money, in return for working as the mascot for the chain of Gamers anime stores in Tokyo, Di-Gi-Ko received a life-time supply of her favorite food, broccoli. The pun is that the character Di-Gi-Ko is partially owned by the Japanese Broccoli trading card company. Originally created by Tombo Koge, Di-Gi-Ko stared in a long version and short version animated television commercial for the Gamers stores, and stared in the 16 episode Di-Gi-Charat TV series last November and December. Each four-minute long TV episode aired as part of the TBS variety program Wonderful. The series was directed by Hiroaki Sakurai, director of the Akihabara Cyber Team movie, with production by Madhouse Studio. The theme song was performed by popular singer Masami Okui, who performed the opening themes to Sorcerer Hunters and Utena.