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Anime Tamago 2019 Video Reveals Anime Shorts' Visuals, Stories

The official website for the "Anime Tamago" (formerly "Anime Mirai") project began streaming a promotional video for this year's project on Friday. The video reveals each anime short's visual. The official website for the project has also revealed each anime's story.

Wit Studio
Title: Hello WeGo!
Director: Ryouji Masuyama (Blend S, Gurren Lagann Parallel Works)
Producer: Maiko Okada
Story: MechatroWeGo are robots that kids can pilot and operate. Satoru pilots an old WeGo that his grandmother gave to him as a gift. When the kids gather in their secret base to race their WeGos, Satoru can't take the first step. Satoru's classmate Akira invites him to race again. This is a story of boy and his robot, set in a seaside town in the near future.

Keica, Griot Groove
Title: Space Attendant Aoi (temporary title)
Director: Kei Yoshimizu (Zumomo to Nupepe)
Producer: Yumiko Yamanaka
Story: In a future where space travel has been made possible, Cetacea Aviation has begun to employ "space attendants" who are skilled in hand-to-hand fighting due combat hijackers who use their own bodies as weapons. Aoi Musashino is one such space attendant, but is unskilled and even calls herself a "clumsy, awkward, but cute turtle." Another space attendant named Yasaki, who has recently been transferred from local to interstellar flights, gets to know a boy named Laika, who says that his songs bring people misfortune.

This will be a CG work.

Nippon Animation
Title: Chuck Shimezō
Director: Eiichiro Nishiyama (animation director for Eiga Chibi Maruko-chan: Italia kara Kita Shōnen, Mysterious Joker)
Producer: Hirofumi Yamashita
Story: There is an honorable family of zipper yōkai who will close any zipper if they happen to find it open. Their son Chuck Shimezō is currently in training, but has so far not yet closed a single zipper. One day, he gets to know a boy named Hiroki, who forgot to close the zipper on his coin purse and lost 500 yen. They bond over talk of their nagging mothers. Together, they run away from home, and head to Hiroki's grandfather's place, but they are also stuck with Hiroki's sister Chie.

Flying Ship Studio
Title: Captain Bal
Director: Masanori Numaguchi (Uchi no Oochopus)
Producer: Hiromichi Nakajima
Story: Bal, a poor boy living on an island, gets the idea to rig a makeshift boat, hoist a pirate flag on it, and become a pirate to get rich. He takes his pig friend Bu, his sister Muge, and the giant salamander Kuna as his crew. He plans to do all sorts of devious deeds in his quest to become a pirate, but ends up doing one good thing after another. What will Captain Bal and his crew do?

This will be a CG work.

This year's selection committee consists of:

• Kenji Uchida (former president of Sunrise)
• Seiji Okuda (executive producer for Shochiku)
• Masao Takiyama (president of Animax Broadcast Japan)
• Nobuo Tomizawa (Telecom Animation Film animator)
• Mitsuru Hongo (anime director)
• Hiroo Maruyama (assistant director at Mainichi Broadcasting)

As in previous years, the anime shorts will train young animators on-the-job part of the Japanese government's Agency of Cultural Affairs' "Young Animator Training Project." As before, all the shorts will be shown next year.

The Japanese government's Agency of Cultural Affairs launched its "Young Animator Training Project" in 2010 with the aim of fostering the growth of domestic animation studios, and tackling the concern that more of the Japanese animation process is being outsourced overseas. The project has spawned such works as Little Witch Academia, Death Billiards (which inspired the Death Parade television anime), and Ongaku Shōjo.

Sources: Anime Tamago website, Anime! Anime! (Kōtarō Nakase)