News
32nd Animator Expo Short is 'Neon Genesis Impacts'
posted on by Karen Ressler
The official website for Japan Anima(tor)'s Exhibition (Japan Animator Expo), the weekly anime shorts from Hideaki Anno's Studio Khara and the media company Dwango, announced on Monday that the 32nd short will be Yūhei Sakuragi's "Neon Genesis IMPACTS." The short will debut on Friday.
Sakuragi (The Case of Hana & Alice's CGI director) is writing and directing the short at Steve N' Steven, and Asako Nishida (Love Live! School idol project, Vampire Knight) is designing the characters. Ai Kakuma is performing the theme song, composed and arranged by buzzG.
Animator Expo describes the story:
The date: 2015 AD.
The Angels' assaults upon Tokyo III have increased in its ferocity.
In this city, three young girls upload their latest song onto Nico Nico Douga.Haruka Ishii, Izumi Taniguchi and Ayako Matsuzawa.
The three girls were juniors in Tokyo III's Private Junior High School No. 1 and they were active on Nico Nama (Nico Nico Douga's live streaming service) as the musical group, Impacts. But with Ayako evacuating the city in order to avoid the Angels' onslaughts, the group was to break up after releasing their latest song A Sentimental Hunch.
Haruka, Izumi and Ayako were about to live their lives, separated from one another. Realizing she would the one left behind, Haruka makes a proposition to Izumi. And now, another Angel is about to wreck havoc upon Tokyo III…
The lineup for the third season of the project is as follows:
| Title | Director/Staff |
|---|---|
| Endless night (TBC) | Sayo Yamamoto |
| GIRL | Hibiki Yoshizaki |
| Cassette Girl | Hiroyasu Kobayashi |
| Kazuyoshi Katayama Project “Untitled” (TBD) | Kazuyoshi Katayama |
| COMEDY SKIT 1989 | Kazuto Nakazawa |
| THE ULTRAMAN | Akitoshi Yokoyama |
| NEON GENESIS IMPACTS. | Yūhei Sakuragi |
| (To Be Determined) | Hiroyuki Okiura |
| HAMMERHEAD | Otaro Maijo × Mahiro Maeda |
| BUREAU OF PROTO SOCIETY | Yasuhiro Yoshiura |
| BUBU & BUBULINA | Takashi Nakamura |
The titles above are listed in phonetic Japanese order, and are not necessarily in the order of their scheduled release. For the third season, Japan Animator Expo is once again releasing a new episode every Friday.
Hideaki Anno himself is serving as executive producer of the entire project initiative with Dwango President Nobuo Kawakami, and he also designed the image character mascot "(Tor)-kun." Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki created the title logo, and fellow Ghibli co-founder Toshio Suzuki colored it. The shorts mostly feature the voice talent of Ranma ½ and Cowboy Bebop co-stars Kouichi Yamadera and Megumi Hayashibara.
Image © nihon animator mihonichi LLP.
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history