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Shinichiro Watanabe, Shuhei Morita's Animated TAISU Shorts to Play at Niigata International Animation Film Festival

The Niigata International Animation Film Festival will screen Shinichiro Watanabe's (Cowboy Bebop) "A Girl Meets a Boy and a Robot", and Shuhei Morita's (Freedom, Tokyo Ghoul) "Roots" (Tsuru no Mai) animated short films at the festival's opening day on March 17. Both short films will screen as Asian premieres, and Watanabe and Morita will also hold a talk event after the screenings.

The two short films are part of the Chinese animation anthology project TAISU, which tells four interlinked animated science-fiction stories by directors from Japan, China, and New Zealand.

The festival describes the short films:

• "A Girl Meets a Boy and a Robot"
  A girl who has lost her memory meets a robot who has also lost its memory, and a young boy who is searching for the ‘Crystal of Time’, as they explore the truth of the world together.

• "Roots"
  The lonely princess Tashen, by chance, establishes a connection with a foreign girl named Aila through a pair of twin flowers, and gradually opens up her heart while chatting with her. However, at this time, the shadow of war looms over them…

Watanabe's short film screened at the 26th Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, Canada in July 2022. Watanabe directed such notable anime productions as Cowboy Bebop, Macross Plus, Samurai Champloo, Space Dandy, Carole & Tuesday, and Terror in Resonance. He also directed the "Blade Runner: Black Out 2022" anime short.

Morita directed anime productions such as Tokyo Ghoul, Freedom, and the anime film Kakurenbo - Hide & Seek. Morita and Sunrise's "Possessions" ("Tsukumo") anime short received an Oscar nomination in 2014 in the Animated Short Film category. "Possessions" is a part of Katsuhiro Otomo's Short Peace omnibus project film, which premiered in Japan in July 2013.

Sources: Niigata International Animation Film Festival's website (link 2) and Twitter account, Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web