Klonoa IMG
Image: via Nintendo

Update [Thu 23rd Dec, 2021 02:30 GMT]: Following on from last week, trademarks have now been filed in Canada on 17th December and Europe on 20th December for 'Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series' (via Gematsu).


Update [Sat 18th Dec, 2021 17:00 GMT]: Just months after a 'Klonoa Encore' trademark popped up in Japan, a new trademark for 'Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series' has been registered in the UK this week. You can see the full listing over on the Intellectual Property Office.

https://twitter.com/mushroom32x/status/1472097035163774979


Original story [Tue 21st Sep, 2021 06:55 BST]: Back in September 2019, word spread about the possibility of the classic Namco character Klonoa returning, after Bandai Namco filed some trademarks in Japan.

Fast forward to September 2021, and the Japanese company has now gone and filed some new trademarks for "Waffuu Encore" and "1&2 Encore" in the same location. The word "encore" is what Bamco has been subtitling remasters of games (e.g. Katamari Damacy 'Encore' instead of 'Reroll' ) in Japan, in recent times.

And the word "Waffuu" - as noted by Gematsu, is the catch phrase of the series' floppy-eared protagonist. When news about Klonoa's possible return surfaced in 2019, it was the same time as a trademark appeared for Mr. Driller: DrillLand (Mr. Driller 'Encore' in Japan).

Klonoa began life in 1997 on the PlayStation and eventually showed up on some of Nintendo's platforms during the GBA and Wii generation. Would you like to see this character make a return? Leave a comment below.

[source gematsu.com]