Keeping the Lights of Creativity on in the Midst of the Corona Disaster! Report on "TWINENGINE Conference 2020," which showed the path of "animation of the future

TWINENGINE Conference 2020, an online event to announce new information about Twin Engine's anime, was broadcast on YouTube Live on Thursday, April 30, 2020.

In the first half of the event, Mirai Shida and Natsuki Hanae, who star in Studio Colorido's latest work, "Cry Me a Cat, Cry Me a Cat," as well as directors Junichi Sato and Tomotaka Shibayama, participated in a talk session about the film.

In the latter part of the session, Koji Yamamoto, president of Twin Engine, and Kenji Nakamura, director of the TV animations "Mononokai" and "Tsurikyu," discussed future corporate strategies and new plans for animation production under the theme of "future animation.

The movie "Cry Me a Cat" will be distributed worldwide on Netflix.

This event was held in an online VR space. In the first half of the event, Koji Yamamoto, representative director of Twin Engine, took the stage in his avatar and announced that the film will be distributed exclusively worldwide on Netflix from June 18, 2020.

The film was scheduled for theatrical release on June 5, but the release date was postponed due to the new coronavirus.

Mirai Shida, who plays the main character Muge (Miyo Sasaki), and Natsuki Hanae, who plays the other main character, Kento Hinode, whom Muge has feelings for, took the stage together with Junichi Sato and Tomotaka Shibayama, the directors who worked on this film.

Shida said of the character she plays, "Muge is in the second year of junior high school, and I felt similarities with her, as I myself could not trust adults and had my own doubts back then. I felt similarities between the two characters.

Hanae-san said, "Hinode is a boy who has problems that only an adolescent student can have, and he grows through his interactions with Muge. I felt that cats can really corrupt people (laugh)," she said, referring to the "cat" in the title of the film. (laugh)," he said, revealing his cat-loving side.

In his final message, Mr. Shida said, "I think this is a heartwarming work about the connections between people. I hope everyone will witness the growth of Muge and Hinode. Hanae commented, "I hope everyone will be able to see the growth of Muge and Hinode.

Hanae-san concluded the segment by saying, "Please look forward to the distribution of this work, which is filled with many people's thoughts and feelings, as it will be available in homes all over the world. Hanae concluded the corner by saying, "You will be able to see it in your homes all over the world.

EOTA, a newly established corporation that will be a major recipient of each studio and unit, was announced.

In the latter part of the presentation, he talked about the Twin Engine Group's future corporate strategy and its new concept for animation production, which is to establish a flexible production system that can continue to produce flexible content under any environment, from video content for worldwide distribution to short content that can be easily enjoyed on social media. In order to build a flexible production structure within the group, the company announced the establishment of EOTA (Engine of the Animation), a new legal entity that will serve as a major recipient for each studio/unit.

The company includes Studio Colorido, which has produced the films "Penguin Highway" and "Cry Me a Cat"; Geno Studio, which produced "Golden Kamui"; Layduce, which produced "Raging Season's Maidens," as well as "BURN THE WITCH," an animated feature film scheduled for release this fall. The other units include team YAMAHITSUJI, led by Tatsuro Kawano, director of the feature film "BURN THE WITCH" to be released this fall; FILMONY, founded by Yojiro Arai, who has produced many works at Studio Colorido; and DAISY, which mainly uses digital tools to produce its works.

Koji Yamamoto, president of Twin Engine, said of "EOTA," "Studios are finding it harder and harder to produce animation, and the new coronavirus has made this even more apparent. We would like to unite as a group so that we can create a number of smaller units that can grow and shrink, so that we can bring out more of our own colors." He explained the background behind the establishment of the company.

In addition, as the needs for video distribution expand, the range of work required is widening, and the need for original works that can compete on the world stage is growing. The Twin Engine Group has therefore announced that it will focus on the production of "short films" as a methodology for developing original works.

In conjunction with this, a crowdfunding project has been launched to produce the first original short film, "Kurayukaba" (directed by Shigeyoshi Tsukahara). The project will be launched on April 30, 2020 (Thursday) on MotionGallery.

The distribution of the project was closed with the idea that even as the world continues to face an uncertain future due to the Corona disaster, the fire of creating works must not be extinguished, and the determination to hold up a light of revival in the animation industry, whose future is still uncertain, was expressed.

The Twin Engine Group was a pioneer of future-oriented efforts in the animation industry, which is still in turmoil due to the Corona disaster. We will keep an eye on their future activities.