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Interest
Kobe Women's University Produces Time-Travel Anime Short

posted on by Eric Stimson

The History Department at Kobe Women's University has an unusual idea for attracting students: a 12-minute anime short starring a time-traveling rabbit. Titled Historical, it is part one of an anticipated series of three episodes.

The anime focuses on Shiki Kanotsuno (Ayaka Fujimoto), a high school senior with an upbeat personality but no clear idea of where she wants to go in life — and most importantly, where to go for college. This contrasts with her friend Makoto (Eri Kitamura), and her mom berates her for not being more decisive. Suddenly, she's accosted by a rabbit-like creature named Enza (Takahiro Sakurai), who seems to mistake her for a time bandit. By accident, they are sent back in time to 1864 Kyoto, and are saved from a pair of unsavory swordslingers by Sōji Okita (Yūsuke Shirai). He is a member of the Shinsengumi, the famous assassin squad of the late Tokugawa Era. Unfortunately, the men from before make off with Enza's time-travel device, and it's up to Shiki and Enza to team up with the Shinsengumi to get the machine back. And where are the swordsmen? At Ikeda-ya, of course...

Historical is the brainchild of a group of students at Kobe Women's University's History Department, with animation production and character design by Rabbit Machine. The students' interest in history merged with an interest in anime to produce this way of promoting their school. While innovative, it is not unique: Asia University has used two anime shorts to promote its Department of Urban Innovation.

EDIT: Rabbit Machine differentiated from Kobe Women's University students. Thanks, Veronica Kitaygorodsky!

[Via Anime! Anime! and Smile Navi]


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