1st short in 3-part series features condos that transform into giant robots

Oscar-nominated director Shuhei Morita ( Freedom , Tokyo Ghoul ) unveiled his new " Chō Kidō Gaiku KASHIWA-NO-HA" (Super Mobile Block KASHIWA-NO-HA) anime short on Thursday. The short is the first in a series of three anime shorts directed by Morita. The short is set in 2018, and it centers on a family who are looking for a new home. The family visits a model room in a condominium complex, then as they are walking around town, they find that some of the surrounding condominiums can transform into giant robots.

The designs of the buildings are based on the buildings in the Kashiwa-no-ha Smart City in Chiba prefecture, with one explicitly based on the Park City Kashiwa-no-ha Campus Ichiban-gai building.

Goki Nakamura served as art director for the short, and Daisuke Sajiki designed the characters. The cast consists of Yūichi Nakamura , Toshiyuki Morikawa , and Maaya Sakamoto .

Morita will release the next anime short in the series on October 8.

In addition, the series has a web manga adaptation titled Kashiwa-no-ha no Sora no Shita de (Under the Sky of Kashiwa-no-ha) that launched on Kadokawa 's Comic Walker site at the same time the short began streaming. Fumio Aya is writing the manga, and Morita and Dai Satō are credited as supervisors.

Source: Cinema Today