Original Anime 'Kurayami Santa' and 'Kowabon' Announced for Summer and Fall 2015

by trebmeg
Jun 10, 2015 8:58 PM | 51 Comments

Kyushu Asahi Broadcasting (KBC) revealed two original short anime for broadcast on its network in Summer and Fall 2015. The first, Kurayami Santa, will begin airing on July 5 and run for 13 episodes. The second, Kowabon, will air in October. Both series will be animated by ILCA.

Kurayami Santa
Kurayami Santa overlays animation on archived footage from the 1960s, which was recently uncovered by KBC, in order to recreate a Showa-era atmosphere. The protagonist, Santa, is tasked with maintaining the balance between the spirit and human worlds. One setting to be used is the now-abandoned Hashima Island in Nagasaki Prefecture, which was previously an active mining facility during the Industrial Revolution.

Staff
Planning, Character Design: Chouji Yoshikawa (associate producer for Pokemon series)
Director, Episode Director: Manabu Nakamura
Script: Hiromu Kumamoto
Episode Direction Advisor: Shinji Nishikawa (special effects design for Godzilla films)
Music: Yasuhiko Fukuda
Studio: ILCA

Cast
Santa Kurayami: Kazuko Sugiyama
Honekami Jizou: Katsue Miwa
Enma Daiou: Hidekatsu Shibata
Ichinosuke Shikabane: Mao Ichimichi
Mutsuko Tomurai: Ami Himesaki (idol group LinQ member)

Kurayami Santa PV

Official site: http://www.kbc.co.jp/santa/

Kowabon
Kowabon, a horror story, will be animated using a technique called rotoscoping. Animators will trace live-action footage frame-by-frame to recreate it as animation.

Staff
Director: Kazuma Taketani
Script: Hiromu Kumamoto
Studio: ILCA

Cast
Yuumi Takaki, Natsu Amano (idol group LinQ members)

Kowabon teaser

Official site: http://www.kbc.co.jp/kowabon/

Source: Kai-You

Kurayami Santa & Kowabon on MAL

20 of 51 Comments Recent Comments

The second one looks interesting.Will give it a try.

Jul 18, 2015 8:57 AM by Chrisereum

People arguing about these anime being short? That is the best thing about them, in my opinion.

3min anime ftw.

Jun 30, 2015 8:50 AM by abreugus

The live action background gimmick alone is enough to make me want to watch Kurayami Santa.

Jun 14, 2015 6:33 AM by Pond

The former could be labelled as "a blast to the past" while the latter of those two anime is outright weird.

Jun 14, 2015 6:22 AM by Rachmaninow

I am intrigued. Non-conventional ways to animate sounds interesting and can turn out great (I liked the rotoscoping in Aku no Hana). The fact that they are shorts makes it easier to try out these series.

Jun 14, 2015 4:58 AM by mewygirl

Kurayami Santa looks very interesting, not just for its black/white 1960s anime design, but because they're using live-action footage and they've employed a VFXpert from the Godzilla films.

This should be very interesting to watch.

Jun 14, 2015 12:57 AM by Haneken2086

Rotoscoping? No thanks. Just make it a regular morning TV drama in live action and i will definitely give it a try

Jun 13, 2015 8:57 AM by Amiluhur

Rotoscoping? Mehh. Call me when they finally have a capable actor/actress.

Jun 13, 2015 6:26 AM by ToG25thBaam

I wish they could do a bit more than just recreating the feel of old anime. Look at Kaiba it's super retro but also modern at the same time.

Dat acting.

Jun 12, 2015 6:04 AM by raveninthemuddle

Rotoscoping and horror looks interesting..

Jun 12, 2015 2:55 AM by Etherealis

They both look very interesting and unique, particularly Kurayami Santa. Will check both of the out.

Jun 11, 2015 6:04 PM by BatoKusanagi

These could either be completely amazing or among the worst anime of all time -- there is no in-between.

Jun 11, 2015 5:04 PM by ex_necross

trebmeg said:
Kowabon
[yt*]pd8TMIZhjZs[/yt]

Aku no Hana 2.0?

Jun 11, 2015 4:29 PM by Comic_Sans

Ah, I hate rotoscoping. Too bad.

Jun 11, 2015 3:20 PM by ErrorCode707

Indeed, they look interesting !

Jun 11, 2015 2:33 PM by removed-user

Interesting, I will look forward to see them!

Jun 11, 2015 1:12 PM by removed-user

very nice , the fist one looks very good to me .

And since I'm heavily curious and interested in all things that touch Rotoscoping , I'll be waiting for that second one , even if the actual content doesn't look that appealing to me .

Jun 11, 2015 12:52 PM by Dullboy

Always looking for good horror animes. Even if i have a better first impression on Kowabon i will watch both.

Jun 11, 2015 12:30 PM by vnusia

kurayami looks very intriguing, i'll try checking it out when the time comes.

i actually don't mind rotoscoping, so i may check out kowabon as well. i'm just really squeamish when it comes to horror, and i hope it isn't super scary.

Jun 11, 2015 11:38 AM by flochelle

I'm in. It's fine that they're shorts, I never expected something like Kurayami Santa to be anything more than a short, and though Kowabon looks like it'll be a horror and it being a short makes me cringe *Pupa flashbacks ensue*, it's being rotoscoped and so I think it being a short will work best in that aspect. We'll see how this goes, though, they can end up being crap or pretty cool at this point.

Jun 11, 2015 11:03 AM by Lil-Bird

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