Sunao Katabuchi Confirms New Anime Film At Studio CONTRAIL

Anime studio CONTRAIL has uploaded a 90-second introduction video for director Sunao Katabuchi’s next untitled feature film. It reveals that production for the film has started this year and will take place in Kyoto 1,000 years ago, around Japan’s Heian period. 

The video features several of the upcoming film’s rough storyboards depicting different characters. It also showcases Katabuchi and his production staff trying on clothing from that time period for reference. 

CONTRAIL explained in a Twitter thread last March that Katabuchi wanted the film to show audiences what Japanese society was like during the Heian period, which has been previously portrayed in works such as The Pillow Book and The Tale of Genji. However, he also wanted to highlight under-reported events in that time period, such as the spread of plagues. 

Helping Katabuchi produce the film as co-director is Chie Uratani (In This Corner of the World). The chief animation director will be Masashi Ando (The Deer King), while Toshiharu Mizutani (Mewkledreamy) is the art director. 

A working title and story details for the film are expected to be released at a later date. 


Source: CONTRAIL Twitter, CONTRAIL YouTube

William Moo is a freelance writer who has previously written for OTAQUEST and MANGA.TOKYO. He also contributes work to the website Yatta Tachi. He enjoys watching lots of anime every season and reading from time to time. You can follow him on Twitter @thewriterSITB.
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