Crunchyroll launches Bananya Buddies, a cosy cat-collector mobile game
Crunchyroll’s first original mobile game puts Bananya on Banana Planet, with merge treats, Buddy Points and a Best Buddies Forever chase.
Crunchyroll has launched Bananya Buddies as the first original game under its Original Game Publishing Initiative, turning the Bananya anime into a cosy mobile cat-collector built around Banana Planet. The game is being published by Crunchyroll and TMS Entertainment, with indie studio The MIX handling development, and it is exclusive to Mega and Ultimate Fan members in Crunchyroll Game Vault.
The setup is simple and very mobile-friendly: players get a first home on Banana Planet and try to turn it into a place that banana-loving cats want to stay. Each Bananya has its own preferences, so toys and treats matter, and learning what each cat likes raises Buddy Points and keeps them around longer. Crunchyroll says relationships can progress all the way to Best Buddies and Best Buddies Forever, with sleepovers and special surprises along the way.
That loop runs on top of a light life-sim routine. Crunchyroll says players can check in through the day, harvest local fruits, mix and merge them into treats, sell extra inventory, and shop at Meowtor Deliveries for exotic goods from Earth. The publisher frames that pace as something you can pick up for a brief moment or stretch into a longer, take-your-time session, which gives Bananya Buddies a clearer identity than a simple mascot collectible.
The timing also lands neatly beside a larger Bananya push. Crunchyroll says the franchise first debuted on July 4, 2016, and the 10th Anniversary anime special is set to premiere at Anime Expo on July 4, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time before streaming on Crunchyroll on July 9, 2026. The special features Atsumi Tanezaki, Yuina Ito, Toshiyuki Morikawa and a theme song by TAMAchan. Episode pages on Crunchyroll date Bananya season 1 episode 1 to July 5, 2016 and episode 2 to July 11, 2016, underscoring how long the little banana cats have lived inside the platform’s orbit.
Bananya Buddies arrives as Crunchyroll Game Vault keeps scaling up. Crunchyroll says the library is available in more than 200 countries and territories and was expected to reach 100 titles by summer 2026, with Bananya Buddies now serving as a test case for how far the service can push beyond licensed catalog play into original mobile games that are built to be checked in on, not just collected.
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