The Kyushu Asahi Broadcasting channel announced on Thursday that it is collaborating with ILCA to produce two series of horror anime shorts, titled Kurayami Santa and Kowabon . The two companies opened official websites for both shows, and began streaming teaser videos on Wednesday.

Kurayami Santa is set in 1960s Kyushu. The show centers around Santa, a familiar from hell who is charged with maintaining the border between hell and the human world. Santa's mission has him crossing paths with many humans and supernatural creatures.

The show is designed to evoke the look of black and white TV anime from the 1960s. The show will use archival footage provided by Kyushu Asahi Broadcasting for its backgrounds, particularly from the now-uninhabited Gunkanjima (Battleship Island) island off of Nagasaki.

The anime's voice cast includes:

Kazuko Sugiyama as Santa Kurayami

Ami Himesaki as Mutsuko Tomura

Hidekatsu Shibata as Daiō Enma

Katsue Miwa as Jizō Honekami

M.A.O as Ichinosuke Shikabane

Manabu Nakamura ( Silent Möbius 2 , Rayearth script) is helming the horror anime project, with scripts supervised by Hiromu Kumamoto ( Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories script) at ILCA, based on an original scenario by Choji Yoshikawa ( Pokémon producer). Shinji Nishikawa ( YAT Anshin! Uchu Ryokou original creator) planned the project and is also providing direction advice. Yasuhiko Fukuda ( Pop'n Music 2 , Kocchi Muite Miko ) is composing the music.

Kurayami Santa will premiere on July 4 on Kyushu Asahi Broadcasting. Each of the 13 episodes will be five minutes long.

Kowabon will be produced through rotoscoping live-action footage, and will feature "Bondage x Stylish Horror" as a theme.

The official website contains the following tagline: "There are cameras everywhere in the world. Those 'eyes' have seen the world you do not know."

Natsu Amano and Yūmi Takaki from the Kyushu idol group LinQ will play two of the rotoscoped characters. The website has not yet specified which roles they are playing.

Kazuma Taketani ( Batman: Gotham Knight assistant line producer) is helming the short horror anime project with scripts supervised by Hiromu Kumamoto at ILCA.

The show will premiere on Kyushu Asahi Broadcasting this fall.

[Via Kai-You]