1993-94 show by Ultraman's Tsuburaya inspires short by Inferno Cop's Akira Amemiya

Japan Animator Expo, the project of weekly anime shorts from Hideaki Anno's studio Khara and the media company Dwango, announced that the ninth short is titled "Denkou Choujin Gridman: boys invent great hero" (Lightning Superman Gridman: boys invent great hero). The project is streaming a preview on Niconico, and it will stream the short itself on its official website on Friday.

Denkou Choujin Gridman was a 1993-1994 tokusatsu (special effect) television series from Ultraman's Tsuburaya Production. DiC Entertainment adapted footage from it into English as Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad . Japan Animator Expo describe the premise of the story:

22 years ago...

A boy, Takeshi Todo, who attempted to take over the world with the devil of the computer world together.

He reformed himself after the battle and now needs the power of the hyper agent. Again, the evil is going to appear in the real world.

A materialized monster is now approaching!

Enter the battle code!

The access code is..."GRIDMAN"



Akira Amemiya (Inferno Cop, Ninja Slayer From Animation) directed the short at the studio Trigger (Kill la Kill, Little Witch Academia, Inferno Cop, Ninja Slayer From Animation), and Yusuke Yoshigaki (Black Rock Shooter, Gambo, Someday's Dreamers II Sora) designed the characters.

The previous eight shorts in the project include "Otaro Maijo and Kazuya Tsurumaki's "The Dragon Dentist," Azuma Tani's "Hill Climb Girl," a music video titled "ME!ME!ME!" featuring the musician Teddyloid (Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt) and rapper daoko, Akira Honma's "Carnage," Yoshikazu Yasuhiko & Ichiro Itano's "Collection of Key Animation Films" from Mobile Suit Gundam, Takeshi Honda and Mahiro Maeda's "20min Walk From Nishi-Ogikubo Station, 2 Bedrooms, Living Room, Dining Room, Kitchen, 2mos Deposit, No Pets Allowed," Tadashi Hiramatsu and Khara's "until You come to me," and Akemi Hayashi's "Tomorrow from there."

Anno himself is serving as executive producer of the entire project initiative with Dwango President Nobuo Kawakami, and he also designed the image character mascot "(Tor)-kun." Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki created the title logo, and fellow Ghibli co-founder Toshio Suzuki colored it. The shorts mostly feature the voice talent of Ranma ½ and Cowboy Bebop co-stars Kouichi Yamadera and Megumi Hayashibara.

One new short will stream every week for a planned total of 30 shorts, ranging from original projects and spinoffs to promotional videos and music videos. The episodes will be streamed for free via a dedicated iOS/Android app and on the web. There are no plans for a commercial release at this stage.