The series aired on Fuji TV's Noitamina programming block from April 11 to June 20, 2019 for eleven episodes, and follows three middle school students who are transformed into kappas in order to collect shirikodama, mythical balls located in the anus that contains the physical manifestation of one's desires; Ikuhara broadly developed the series as a story about yōkai (supernatural monsters) for an adult audience.

The Otter Empire, in the guise of "Kappazon, Inc.", controls society by manipulating the desires of the masses, and has been the enemy of the Kappa Kingdom for generations.

"[16] Ikuhara has additionally stated that he wished to create a series where the primary protagonists were male, in contrast to the female-centric narratives of his previous directorial efforts.

[15] In August 2017, MAPPA listed a job posting to recruit staff for a "Kunihiko Ikuhara-directed work", effectively announcing the existence of a series to be produced by Ikuhara and the studio.

[17] The series was formally announced as Sarazanmai on March 6, 2018 during a three-day Revolutionary Girl Utena marathon on Niconico,[18] with one of three different teaser trailers shown at the end of each respective day of programming.

[25] The primary production staff includes Ikuhara and Teruko Utsumi as script writers, Nobuyuki Takeuchi as chief series director (who previously collaborated with Ikuhara on Utena and Penguindrum[18]); the illustrator Miggy serves as original character designer,[26] while Kayoko Ishikawa adapted the character designs for animation and serves as the chief animation director.

In the penultimate chapter, Sara suddenly grows up into an adult, thanks Reo and Mabu for being her fathers, and disappears with a man who previously sleepwalked into the kōban.

Additional contributors include manga artists Mataaki Off, Samata Techno, Akira Kasukabe, Yamamoto Kotetsuko, Akari Funato, and Riyo.

[70] A manga adaptation of the anime series written by Ikuhara and illustrated by Miggy began serialization on the digital distribution platform Comic Boost on May 19, 2019.

[71] A two-volume light novel adaptation of Sarazanmai, written by Ikuhara and Utsumi with illustrations by Miggy, was published by Gentosha.

[73] North American licensing rights to the novels were acquired by Seven Seas Entertainment in February 2020, with the first volume slated for release on September 1, 2020.

[74] PreZanmai, a radio program hosted by series creator Kunihiko Ikuhara and Keppi voice actor Junichi Suwabe, aired from January 5, 2019 to June 28, 2019.

"[15]Similarly to Ikuhara's previous works, the thematic content of Sarazanmai is in direct reference to major world events and systems.

"[82] The series' anti-consumerism stance is most overly expressed through the kappa zombies, which revolve around specific objects delivered by "Kappazon", an Amazon analogue.

[84] The series' setting of Asakusa and Ueno is the location of Kappabashi-dori ("Kitchen Town"), its name a pun for the area's proliferation of kappa imagery and dishware wholesalers.

While Ekens praises the series' thematic material, she charges that Sarazanmai retreads subjects explored in Ikuhara's previous works, characterizing the series as "repetitious, even more so than Ikuhara's previous output [...] on the highest level of overt text, it's kind of just a pared down version of what's become Ikuni's archetypal narrative.