Kaya-chan Isn't Scary

• Ja Kanji — カヤちゃんはコワくない • Ja Romaji — Kaya-chan wa Kowakunai • Genre — * Action • Horror

• Type — manga • Author — Tarō Yuri • Publisher — Shinchosha • Imprint — Bunch Comics • Magazine — Kurage Bunch • First — April 1, 2022 • Volumes — 9

• Type — tv series • Director — Hiroshi Ikehata • Writer — Shigeru Murakoshi • Music — * Kohta Yamamoto • Shun Narita • Studio — East Fish Studio • Licensee — * Crunchyroll • Network — TXN (TV Tokyo), AT-X, WOWOW • First — January 11, 2026 • Last — March 29, 2026 • Episodes — 12

• Portal — yes Kaya-chan Isn't Scary is a Japanese supernatural horror manga series written and illustrated by Tarō Yuri. It began serialization on Shinchosha's Kurage Bunch manga website in April 2022. An anime television series adaptation produced by East Fish Studio premiered aired from January to March 2026.

Kaya is an infamous problem child in her kindergarten, always causing trouble for her friends and teachers. However, when teacher Chie is put in charge of her, she discovers that Kaya is actually protecting the children from evil spirits that wish to bring harm to others. A story of a misunderstood hero follows.

• Kaya Satō / Kaya-chan: • A 5-year-old kindergartener with powerful psychic abilities, which she uses to defend her classmates from evil spirits. However, since ordinary people cannot perceive these specters, she gets misunderstood as a problem child. It is later revealed that she is the result of her mother's failed attempt to give birth to an evil spirit, causing her soul to be infused with the spirit of the ancestor of the Ebisumori clan. • Chie Hasumi / Chie-sensei • Maaya Uchida • A young caretaker and teacher at the kindergarten Kaya attends. She is the only faculty member who knows that Kaya is actually protecting the other children from evil spirits and defends her whenever her colleagues scold her. • Osamu Mob / Mobuo • Fukushi Ochiai • A supernatural enthusiast who takes an interest in Kaya and the Ebisumori clan. However, this often causes him to get mistaken for a child stalker. • Namu Hirukomori / Nam: • Mobuo's partner and a distant relative of the Ebisumori clan. Like Kaya, he possesses psychic powers that allow him to see and destroy evil spirits. This made him grow up as an outcast until he met Mobuo, causing him to be very protective of him. He is also wary of Kaya, perceiving the spirit of the Ebisumori clan's ancestor within her.

• Shizuo Satō / Kaya-Papa: • Kaya's father. He is an ordinary man without psychic powers who remains unaware of the existence of evil spirits. Though often having to work long hours, he still tries his best to be there for his daughter and pick her up from kindergarten whenever possible. • Mirai Satō / Kaya-Mama • Mamiko Noto • Kaya's mother and the main antagonist. A seemingly ordinary woman with no psychic powers, she is later revealed to be pregnant with a powerful evil spirit. Growing up within the Ebisumori clan, she went mad upon discovering their practice of having non-psychics like her give birth to evil spirits to eliminate their enemies, prompting her to flee and plot to destroy them with their own dark rituals. In the end, Kaya destroys the demon, saving her from dying in childbirth while the baby is born healthy. • Nana Ebisumori • Haruka Tomatsu • Kaya's aunt and the current head of the Ebisumori clan. Like her niece, she possesses psychic powers that allow her to perceive evil spirits, though not destroy them. After learning of Kaya's existence, she confronted and quickly bonded with her, picking her up from kindergarten whenever her father was unavailable. She wishes for Kaya to live an ordinary life, far away from evil spirits and the Ebisumori clan. • Mutsu Ebisumori • Yoshiko Sakakibara • Kaya's grandmother and the former head of the Ebisumori clan. Like her granddaughter, she possessed psychic powers that allowed her to perceive and destroy evil spirits. Though once an advocate for her family's dark practices, she grew to regret her actions and allowed her second daughter, Mirai, to leave the clan. The unborn evil spirit Mirai is pregnant with later kills her.

• Akira-sensei: • Chihiro-sensei: • Sakuya Maenuma / Saku-chan • Misaki Kuno • Kentarō Ise / Kenken • Mutsumi Tamura • Yuzu Tachibana / Yuzu-chan • Chiemi Tanaka • Masaru / Ma-chan • Natsumi Fujiwara

Written and illustrated by Tarō Yuri, Kaya-chan Isn't Scary began serialization on Shinchosha's Kurage Bunch manga website on April 1, 2022. The series' chapters have been collected into nine tankōbon volumes as of April 2026. In November 2024, Seven Seas Entertainment announced that they had licensed the series for English publication beginning in April 2025.

An anime television series adaptation was announced on November 1, 2024. It is produced by East Fish Studio and directed by Hiroshi Ikehata, with series composition handled by Shigeru Murakoshi, characters designed by Taro Yamada and Hiroyuki Moriguchi, and music composed by Kohta Yamamoto and Shun Narita. The series aired from January 11 to March 29, 2026, on TV Tokyo and its affiliates, and other networks. The opening theme song is 4='The Phantom's Destination', performed by Isekaijoucho, while the ending theme song is "Playmour", performed by Sak and Tao and featuring Azusa Tachibana as her character Kaya-chan. Crunchyroll is streaming the series. Medialink licensed the series in Southeast Asia and Oceania (except Australia and New Zealand) for streaming on Ani-One Asia's YouTube channel. An English dub provided by Kadokawa premiered on the same day as the sub version.