Bandai Channel streams shorts on March 20; MBS, Animax, Yomiuri TV air shorts

The Anime Tamago project (formerly Anime Mirai) announced plans on Tuesday for the television broadcast and streaming plans for its 2016 anime shorts.

The Bandai Channel site will stream the shorts during a special event on March 20. In addition, the following television channels will broadcast the shorts on Japanese television:

MBS, April 2 ("Kacchikenee" and "Kaze no Matasaburō" shorts only)

Animax, May (all four shorts; no specific day given)

Yomiuri TV, on MANPA Monday night anime block ("Colorful Ninja Iromaki" and "UTOPA" shorts only; no schedule given)

Two episodes of the radio program "Masayuki Wada no WADAX Radio" on March 6 and 13 will have the producers of the shorts as guests on the show, where the host will interview the producers on the production process.

The project will also host a free screening in Tokyo at TOHO Cinemas Nihonbashi on March 19. The project's official site will also feature a survey starting on March 8, and those who fill out the survey can enter a contest to win scripts from the shorts, as well as signed posters.

The Tokyo Anime Center with Aru Aru City will hold an exhibit for the shorts from March 8-21.

The project's official website previously streamed the project's second promotional video for the shorts earlier this month.

The anime shorts and the studios producing them include:





Title: "Colorful Ninja Iromaki"Studio: Signal MD (IG Port's new anime studio subsidiary Director/Writer: Kentarō Kobayashi (comedian/actor/writer of the Rahmens comedy duo)Producer: Yoshiki SakuraiThird-grader Himeno (voiced by Hazuki Shimizu) moves to a huge mansion in the country. But she soon finds out it's a ninja house! The ninjas Akamaki (who tends to the fires, Inuko Inuyama), Aomaki (who sees to the water, Vanilla Yamazaki), and Kiiromaki (who sees to the carpentry, Teiyū Ichiryūsai) mistake Himeno for a princess, and begin solving problems for her with their own unique skills. But that is not the full extent of their powers! When Aomaki and Kiiromaki combine, they from Midorimaki. Similarly, when Akamaki and Aomaki combine, they form Murasakimaki; and when Akamaki and Kiiromaki combine, they form Tōmaki. Life with these colorful ninjas has only begun, when they discover a large tornado heading for the mansion. What will happen to the Himeno family? Can the colorful ninja protect Himeno?





Title: "UTOPA"Studio: Studio 4°CDirector, Original Character Design: Takahiro TanakaProducer: Tomoko OgiwaraHundreds of years after the 20th century, nature and the ecosystem have been devastated due to use of nuclear and biological weaponry. Most of Earth has been contaminated and is collapsing into ruin, and a great majority of plants and animals are now extinct. The world heads to the “Big Six,” the sixth mass extinction event. Humanity built cities in the sky, migrating the endangered species of animals and plants there. Over many years, the animals evolved in these isolated cities. With artificial genetic crossbreeding, they acquire language, bipedality, and build a life and civilization for themselves free from want. No one thinks of the world below any longer. One day, a single plant seed wanders into one of the sky cities, and the children Kui (Aimi Tanaka), Hiruma (Reina Ueda), and Ruuto (Yū Fukaya) discover it. Unable to resist the temptation to look into the world outside, they decide to undertake an adventure to the outside world, not knowing that once they set foot on the ground, they will never be able to return.





Title: "Kacchikenee"Studio: Tezuka ProductionsDirector: Fumihiro YoshimuraProducer: Yoshihiro ShimizuAiko (Himika Akaneya) lives in a shrine that has a sliding door that mysteriously is only half painted, and thought during her childhood that she wanted to paint it. But the 17-year old Aiko now has no dreams about the future. Suddenly, a strange man (Lion Kako) appears before her. Aiko's grandfather and the shrine's chief priest offers the man to stay in the shrine, but Aiko isn't having any of it. But she realizes the kindness of the brusque young man, and slowly comes to like him. But what is his true identity?





Title: "Kaze no Matasaburō"Studio: BuemonDirector: Yuki YamadaProducer: Kiyohiko TakayamaA girl moves from the city and goes to school in the country due to some circumstances at her father's job. Her new schoolmates keep her at a distance. There is a boy she'd like to get to know better, but she worries about how he might treat her, and doesn't try to get closer. She begins to hate life in the country, and longs to return to the city, but she ends up meeting a real god of wind. The work depicts the fears, kindness, and love of children in a short, fleeting fairy tale.

Each studio will produce their respective anime shorts until March. As in previous years, the anime shorts will train young animators on-the-job.

The Japanese government's Agency of Cultural Affairs launched its "Young Animator Training Project" in 2010 with the aim of fostering the growth of domestic animation studios, and tackling the concern that more of the Japanese animation process is being outsourced overseas. The project has spawned such works as Little Witch Academia and Death Billiards (which inspired the Death Parade television anime). Last year's Anime Mirai shorts screened at the Tokyo Anime Award Festival on March 22.

Source: Anime! Anime!; Katsunori Takahashi