Bandai Namco launches 'Pursuing The Future' animation project with 'Akira' and 'Possessions' talent

Bandai Namco Filmworks has announced a new animation initiative titled Pursuing The Future, bringing together six leading Japanese animation studios to produce a series of original 3D CG animated short films.

The project is led by Sunrise Studios and involves collaboration between Bandai Namco and five additional studios.

Each studio is producing one short film, with the collective aim of showcasing new technologies and creative approaches in Japanese animation while “carrying the history of animation forward into the future”, according to the company.

The first two completed shorts have been produced by Sunrise Studios and Yamatoworks.

The film draws inspiration from traditional Japanese illustrated scrolls and is set in Heian-era Japan. Its story follows three noblemen drinking in a rain-soaked pavilion, where one reveals he once played a high-stakes game with a demon in exchange for resurrecting his wife.

The second short, Metafear, is produced by Yamatoworks and directed by Shuhei Morita, whose earlier work Possessions was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. The project also features character and visual design oversight by Tatsuyuki Tanaka.

Metafear is described as a fast-paced fantasy centred on a girl tormented by nightmares and the manifestations of fear that emerge from them.

Bandai Namco said the two completed films were created by “some of Japan’s most distinguished veteran animators and exceptionally talented creators”, describing the project as one that could only have been realised at this moment in time.

Details of the remaining four short films have not yet been disclosed, although the company confirmed that participation from internationally recognised creators has already been secured.

The project will be showcased at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France next week, where further information is expected to be shared.