By anime and manga auteur Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira, Memories, Steamboy) comes a new film called Short Peace, an omnibus series of works involving himself and other prolific artists. The film combines writers, animators, and artists from distinguished backgrounds in the anime industry. As a fan of Otomo’s works myself, I am incredibly excited about his next picture.
Such figures include Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (Evangelion), Hajime Katoki (Gundam franchise, Policenauts), Kori Mojimoto (Animatrix Beyond segment), Katushito Ishii (Redline), Hiraoki Ando (Five Numbers!) and Shuhei Morita (Freedom).
Cinema Today has released a 95-second trailer for Short Peace, which contains 4 shorts in all. This is the second compilation film supervised by Katsuhiro Otomo ever since his 1995 film Memories, which included 3 films — one of which had screenplay and set design credits by the late anime auteur Satoshi Kon (Paprika, Perfect Blue).
You can watch the teaser below:
Here are the names of the films below:
“Combustible” (“Hi-no-youjin”)
Screenplay, Director: Katsuhiro Otomo
Character Design, Visual Concept: Hidekazu Ohara (Memories’ Cannon Fodder)
Music: Makoto Kubota“Tsukumo”
Screenplay, Director: Shuhei Morita (Kakurenbo, Freedom)
Original Story Concept, Conceptual Design: Keisuke Kishi“Gambo”
Director: Hiroaki Ando (Five Numbers!)
Original Story Concept, Screenplay, Creative Director: Katsuhito Ishii (Redline, Funky Forest: The First Contact, Taste of Tea)
Character Design: Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (Evangelion, .hack, Summer Wars)“Buki yo Saraba” (A Farewell to Arms)
Original Story: Katsuhiro Otomo
Screenplay, Director: Hajime Katoki (mechanical designs in Gundam franchise, Super Robot Wars)
Character Design: Tatsuyuki Tanaka (Tojin Kit)In addition, Koji Morimoto (The Animatrix’s Beyond, Memories’ Magnetic Rose, Noiseman Sound Insect, Genius Party’s Dimension Bomb) contributed the film’s opening animation.
The film attempts to explore “possible future avenues of expression”, by gathering the top names of anime artists and designers. Short Peace was originally a series of short mangas written by Otomo in the 1970s, and are currently produced by Sunrise, which also animated his 2004 film Steamboy.
Combustible has received very strong reception around the world, winning the Grand Prize in the Animation division of the 16th Japan Media Arts Festival Awards, and earning the Nobuoro Oofuji Award in the 67th Annual Mainichi Film Awards. Both Combustible and Tsukomo were nominated works at the Annecy Film Festival in France.
The complete compilation is opening in Japan July 20th, with five artworks postcards (storyboards, conceptual art, production design, etc.) from advance ticket sales for 1,500 yen ($15).
