Chiikawa Anime Film Tops Japan Box Office: Kingdom Falls to Third Place
Last weekend, the top of Japan's box office changed: the Chiikawa anime film took the number one spot in its opening weekend. According to Anime News Network's report dated July 30, 2026, the series' new theatrical film had the strongest opening and topped the charts. This result once again proved that the Chiikawa universe, which was born on social media and quickly gained a massive fan base, has legs on the big screen as well.
Chiikawa is based on a manga series that illustrator Nagano began publishing on Twitter in 2020. The series' cute but equally eccentric characters Chiikawa, Hachiware, and Usagi deal with themes of eating, finding work, and fighting dangerous creatures in their daily lives. The manga, published in book form by Kodansha, reached a wide audience with a TV anime adaptation that aired in Fuji TV's Mezamashi TV program slot in 2022. The series, which has been constantly in the spotlight in Japan through toys, stationery, and café collaborations since its debut, is now continuing that success with a theatrical film.
Another notable development in the upper ranks of the box office is on the Kingdom side. The fifth live-action film, adapted from mangaka Yasuhisa Hara's historical manga series of the same name, fell to third place after failing to maintain its position from last week. The original manga, which has been published in Weekly Young Jump since 2006, tells the story of Shin, a young general candidate from the Qin Kingdom. The previous four live-action films also achieved significant success in Japan; therefore, the strong showing of the fifth film in its first week shows that the series still has a large audience in theaters.
In fifth place on the list, the crossover film Kamen Rider Zeztz & Super Space Sheriff Gavan Infinity W Hero Natsu Eiga 2026 opened. Anime News Network reports that this production ranked fifth in its opening weekend. The Kamen Rider series has been one of the most important representatives of Japanese hero tradition since 1971. Super Space Sheriff Gavan is the legendary name of the Metal Hero series that began in 1982. Bringing together heroes from two generations, the film serves as a special meeting for both nostalgic and new-generation tokusatsu fans.
This picture reveals that animated film is still one of the strongest genres in Japan, while also showing that long-running series such as Kingdom and Kamen Rider continue to attract large audiences with live-action and special-effects productions. In the coming weeks, it will be closely watched at the Japanese box office whether the Chiikawa film can hold on to its top spot, whether Kingdom can rise again, and whether the Kamen Rider/Gavan crossover can sustain its first-week impact.
