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[duckroll]

http://shortpeace-movie.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5b3nsWT7u8

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/new...tsuhiro-otomo-unveils-short-peace-film-teaser

The creator of Akira has been working on this omnibus film for a while now, and it looks like it's finally done. It will open in Japan on July 20th this year and the new trailer showcases all four shorts instead of just the initial two which have been making film festival rounds recently.

The people involved with this production:

"Combustible" ("Hi-no-youjin")
Director/Script: Katsuhiro Otomo
Character Design/Visual Concept: Hidekazu Ohara
Music: Makoto Kubota

"Tsukumo"
Director/Script: Shuhei Morita (Kakurenbo, Freedom)
Story Concept/Conceptual Design: Keisuke Kishi

"Gambo"
Director: Hiroaki Ando (Tekkonkinkreet)
Story Concept/Script/Creative Director: Katsuhito Ishii (Redline)
Character Design: Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (Evangelion)

"A Farewell to Arms" ("Buki yo Saraba")
Original Story: Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira)
Screenplay, Director: Hajime Katoki (Best Mecha Designer Ever)
Character Design: Tatsuyuki Tanaka (Tojin Kit)



Opening Animation
Koji Morimoto (The Animatrix's Beyond, Genius Party's Dimension Bomb)

 

[PhantomOfTheKnight]

Is that entirely CG?

 

[duckroll]

Is that entirely CG?

No?

 

[BadWolf]

Was just thinking the other day other day how long its been since I've seen anything new of his, love his work.

Can't wait for this.

 

[Captain N. Tenneal]

Awesome! The format reminds me of "Memories", his previous short film showcase with the 3 films. So excited for this!

PhantomOfTheKnight, there are definitely some cg elements being used in the film - I'd say judging from what I saw in the short trailer, the film with the military suits had a bunch of 3D elements either rotoscoped, or more likely done with some cel/toon shader magic. The complexity and fluidity of the elements makes me think that's the route they would take. Otomo did some similar blending of 3D and 2D in Steamboy for the more complex mechanical vehicles and designs.

Edit: On closer inspection, I'd say that "Tsukumo" is CG with some advanced 2D looking shaders as well. The shadow rendering is too complex and smooth for it to be otherwise - but I won't know until I see everything to make the call.

 

[Snakeyes]

I wonder if Otomo feels he reached the 2D peak with Akira, and that's why he's focused on CG animation since.

 

[triplestation]

Is that entirely CG?

lmfao i dont know why this is funny

 

[cutmeamango]

They do look CGI stuffed, but the good, well done, cohesive kind of 3D cgi.

 

[140.85]

Oh awesome. I love it when he does this. Memories and Robot Carnival is some of the best anime out there.

 

[watershed]

Looks great. I'm glad there are anime autuers making cool stuff.

 

[zoukka]

They do look CGI stuffed, but the good, well done, cohesive kind of 3D cgi.

They look like 3D models.

And that's not good.

 

[distantmantra]

Katoki is directing? Wow.

 

[John Rabbit]

looks gorgeous if not a little heavy on the 3D.

 

[Cwarrior]

*grumble* it's anime level cg meh.

"Combustible"(geisha one) looks like the better one from that pv.

"A Farewell to Arms" looks the worst.

 

[BadWolf]

I wonder if Otomo feels he reached the 2D peak with Akira, and that's why he's focused on CG animation since.

Steamboy?

 

[duckroll]

Steamboy?

Tons of CG in Steamboy too.

 

[Riposte]

Seems unrealistic to hope for a top tier quality 2D movie without some 3D. That era is behind us isn't it?

 

[TheKaeptain]

I liked the trailer. So Otomo just directed one short? Is he also working as the producer behind the other shorts?

 

[duckroll]

I liked the trailer. So Otomo just directed one short? Is he also working as the producer behind the other shorts?

He put the project together, similar to what he did with Memories. He directed Combustible, and provided the concept for A Farewell to Arms. The other two are original ideas by the different creators involved.

 

[Dachande]

Too much noticeable CG in that trailer for my liking...

 

[Snakeyes]

Steamboy?

It had quite a bit of CG, iirc

 

[TheKaeptain]

He put the project together, similar to what he did with Memories. He directed Combustible, and provided the concept for A Farewell to Arms. The other two are original ideas by the different creators involved.

Cool. I've never seen Memories despite having it on DVD since release.


Edit: The little Gambo clip with the girl in the flowers (or what looks like flowers) looks beautiful.

 

[Snakeyes]

Seems unrealistic to hope for a top tier quality 2D movie without some 3D. That era is behind us isn't it?

There's Redline, which came out a couple years ago.

 

[Dachande]

There's Redline, which came out a couple years ago.

Which, sadly, bombed. It was fucking brilliant, too.

 

[Blader]

That looks great! Not generally a fan of 3D in anime, but this is the kind of 3D I can get behind.

 

[MoonLightWave]

That CGI, not bad. I prefer 2D, but CGI like this doesn't bother me that much. It's definitetly getting better.

 

[BadWolf]

Tons of CG in Steamboy too.

It had quite a bit of CG, iirc

Still a 2D movie at its core.

Additionally, the film was in production for ten years and utilized more than 180,000 drawings and 440 CG cuts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steamboy

 

[LiK]

Excited. Akira was a masterpiece but Steamboy was fucking shit even with its gorgeous animation. Will look forward this for the inevitable eye candy.

 

[Shig]

As someone who just revisited Robot Carnival on youtube recently, I am excite. I really dig these short-form collaborative works.

 

[duckroll]

Still a 2D movie at its core.

So's Combustible? Magnetic Rose? Cannon Fodder? They're all 2D at the core, just with increasingly more and more digital effects and CG enhancements to do different things visually. When has Otomo made a full CG film?

 

[See You Next Wednesday]

Ugh, even Otomo had succumb to using shitty cg in his anime.

There is no God.

 

[Mature]

I'm sooo excited for this. Memories (specifically Magnetic Rose) is one of my favorite bits of animation ever. I love how completely unique each work looks.

Ugh, even Otomo had succumb to using shitty cg in his anime.

You're more than welcome to not like CG, but as far as CG goes, this doesn't look shitty.

 

[BadWolf]

So's Combustible? Magnetic Rose? Cannon Fodder? They're all 2D at the core, just with increasingly more and more digital effects and CG enhancements to do different things visually. When has Otomo made a full CG film?

And?

The person whom I quoted made it sound like Otomo has focused on CG since Akira, which is not true. Its just how things are these days, CG is used to save time and effort. If he were to make Akira today you can be pretty damn sure it would contain CG like Steamboy.

 

[duckroll]

And?

The person whom I quoted made it sound like Otomo is focusing on CG since Akira, which is not true. Its just how things are these days, CG is used to save time and effort. If he were to make Akira today you can be pretty damn sure it would contain CG like Steamboy.

CG definitely isn't just used to save time and effort. It's an actual visual form which many directors and animators in Japan are actually interested in exploring as a creative art form. Sure, it doesn't look as great as Pixar's work. You're selling it short if you think Otomo himself has no interest at all in CG and is only using it to save time and effort.

 

[Nibel]

Saw that Otomo is working on it - will watch for sure

 

[Amirnol]

Saw Combustible when Otomo and his producer came to our studio, thought it was awesome. Really looking forward to seeing the rest of the films in the project. Even got a chance to meet the guy and got a sweet drawing from him. Really classy dude.

CG elements of the film worked really well I thought, still felt very hand-drawn.

 

[Branduil]

They're using some kind of line-weighting shaders to make the CGI look more hand-drawn. It reminds me of the CGI in Time of Eve.

The designs look really good in the slower shots, but I think during the quicker action the designs are so busy that it's not going to look as appealing as well-done traditional animation. Simplicity isn't always a sin.

 

[Branduil]

I would prefer for CG to always be as well-integrated as it appears here than the awkward & distracting overlaying on 2D or the even-worse rotoscoped looking mix of techniques that results in barf like those Berserk movies.

Trailer looks fantastic and were it not for people complaining about the mere existence of CG - get over it, it is here to stay, and 2D will probably mainly continue as a hybridized form going forward so I will take what I can get - I wouldn't have noticed or cared because it looks hella beautiful and cool.

This is technically a mix of techniques too, though... A Farewell to Arms is using 2D faces pasted on CGI. It's just way better done than the ugly Berserk movies, lol.

 

[BocoDragon]

He also worked on the anthologies Neo Tokyo and Robot Carnival in the late 80s.

Awesome. I loved Memories. Have to check these out. And this new one too.

 

[duckroll]

They're using some kind of line-weighting shaders to make the CGI look more hand-drawn. It reminds me of the CGI in Time of Eve.

The designs look really good in the slower shots, but I think during the quicker action the designs are so busy that it's not going to look as appealing as well-done traditional animation. Simplicity isn't always a sin.

Simplicity doesn't exist if we're talking about Katoki's visual style though. There's a reason why he's engineering the more complex grade Gundam model kits these days instead of doing mechanical design for animation. The extremely complex and busy look -is- Katoki. It's what fans expect of him, and it's what he likes to portray in mechanical detailing. The look is perfect for him.

Plus, it's clearly not entirely CG. The effects mostly look traditionally animated.

 

[MoonLightWave]

The berserk movies aint that ugly guys...

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

This looks great, and the line-up (Gambo in particular) is immensely interesting. Count me in.

 

[Branduil]

Simplicity doesn't exist if we're talking about Katoki's visual style though. There's a reason why he's engineering the more complex grade Gundam model kits these days instead of doing mechanical design for animation. The extremely complex and busy look -is- Katoki. It's what fans expect of him, and it's what he likes to portray in mechanical detailing. The look is perfect for him.

Plus, it's clearly not entirely CG. The effects mostly look traditionally animated.

Yeah, they are, and they look really good.

I'm not saying it looks bad, necessarily, but I think there can be drawbacks to using really detailed designs. The suits look the best in that slow-motion shot near the beginning.

 

[duckroll]

Yeah, they are, and they look really good.

I'm not saying it looks bad, necessarily, but I think there can be drawbacks to using really detailed designs. The suits look the best in that slow-motion shot near the beginning.

I agree, there are definitely drawbacks. Like I said, there's a reason why he hasn't been very active doing animation designs anymore, because it's just kinda impractical for any sort of budget. But it's kinda cool for a short like this though. It looks like a really dreamy hyper-realistic sci-fi anime filled with detail. If it were any longer, it would probably get really weird.

Even with Gundam Unicorn, where Sunrise tried their hardest to do really nice detailed 2D animated mecha scenes, they have had to use increasingly more and more CG in each installment because their animators were just dying. Lol.

That's what Katoki designs do to people.

 

[jett]

Looks pretty interesting.

 

[Branduil]

I agree, there are definitely drawbacks. Like I said, there's a reason why he hasn't been very active doing animation designs anymore, because it's just kinda impractical for any sort of budget. But it's kinda cool for a short like this though. It looks like a really dreamy hyper-realistic sci-fi anime filled with detail. If it were any longer, it would probably get really weird.

Even with Gundam Unicorn, where Sunrise tried their hardest to do really nice detailed 2D animated mecha scenes, they have had to use increasingly more and more CG in each installment because their animators were just dying. Lol.

That's what Katoki designs do to people.

Well, CGI is definitely a godsend for designers like him, as it's much more suitable for that kind of detail. Hopefully we get more CGI that uses techniques like line-weighting to at least give it more of a hand-drawn feel.

 

[duckroll]

Otomo did the opening and closing segments for Robot Carnival, which you much make sure to watch all the way to the end because there is a little bonus epilogue included. They're beautiful, bombastic, and more than a little bit misanthropic, all of which are trademarks of his style, with humor thrown in for good measure, though tragically they're really short. Probably my favorite segments in an uneven anthology, but there's lots of other good stuff there too.

You're just trying to trick people into watching that Umetsu segment aren't you?

 

[Metroid Killer]

Fuck yeah! This takes me back to the 80s/90s' anime. We need more stuff like this! Can't wait, I loved Memories.

 

[BurritoBushido]

Dang that looks awesome

 

[GuitarAtomik]

Looks beautiful.