Bandai Namco Launches Animation Short Film Project With Talent Behind ‘Akira’ & Oscar-Nominated ‘Possessions’

EXCLUSIVE: Japan’s Bandai Namco Filmworks is teaming with six leading animation studios on short film project, Pursuing The Future, to showcase the latest technologies and creative ideas in Japanese animation. 

Led by Sunrise Studios, the project brings together six original 3D CG animated short films, each one produced by Bandai Namco and a different studio. The six shorts have been commissioned with the aim of “carrying the history of animation forward into the future”.

The first two shorts – produced by Sunrise Studios and Yamatoworks – have already been completed. 

Dice With Demon, produced by Sunrise Studios, is directed by Hidekazu O’Hara, who worked as a key animator on Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira and Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind. The film has been inspired by Japan’s famous classical illustrated scrolls.

Set in Heian-era Japan, the story revolves around three noblemen drinking in a rain-slicked pavilion where one confesses that he played a high-stakes game with a demon to resurrect his late wife.

The second short, Metafear, is produced by Yamatoworks and directed by Shuhei Morita, whose Possessions (Tsukumo) was nominated for the 86th Academy Awards in the Animated Short Film category. Other talent on the film includes Tatsuyuki Tanaka overseeing character and visual design. 

Described as a fast-paced fantasy, the film centres on a girl haunted by nightmares and the fears that take shape from them.

“Created by some of Japan’s most distinguished veteran animators and exceptionally talented creators, these two films represent a rare project that could only have been realized at this very moment in time,” Bandai Namco said in a statement. 

Details of the remaining four films have yet to be revealed, although Bandai Namco also said “participation by internationally acclaimed creators has already been confirmed”. The project is being presented at Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France next week.