What If the Samurai Era Lasted in Japan Until 2026? – World Premiere of a Scene from the Theatrical Anime KILLTUBE! – All the News and Reviews from Anime Expo 2025

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KillTube It’s a bold job. It is full of confidence. Its artist’s first approach is pure. But when it finally completes in 2026 – Chocolate Company Say this will be done – will it be OK?
Animation Expo Participants apply crunchyroll The stage of the platinum ballroom to make the behind-the-scenes look attracted to the public as they abandoned the “pilot of the feature film” Youtube last year. As of this writing, the 1-minute clip has over 650,000 views, so no one can deny that it has caught people’s attention.
After the group’s MC, Ian whipped the crowd a little, and he introduced the group’s guests: film director kazuaki kuribayashiand animation producer Fuye. Both guests made their prepared remarks directly, buzzing excitedly.
Kuribayashi describes the basic tone of the film. KillTube Japan took place in the replacement of Japan that never ended in the Edo period, and Japan was largely closed to the outside world, while the samurai still existed. Industrial and technological advances continue, thus blending traditional Japanese culture and images with a world of modern things like skyscrapers and live broadcasts.

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This alternative Japan has been divided into seven social levels, and the only way to climb these levels is to achieve a showdown KillTube And increase your attention.
The story tells a boy named Musashi, who was raised by a dog and did not care about rules or social norms. His pants often sag very low. He starts at the first level of social level and then delves into the duel world to rise and challenge the system.
Joining the story is what Kuribayashi describes as “like a K-pop star outside, but he is a sneaky genius liar at heart.” There is also the genius inventor Leo who “believes that she is the reincarnation of Leonardo da Vinci”. At the top of the duel streaming food chain are characters collectively called “K7” inspired by pieceThe seven warlords of the sea.
They shared an exclusive process preview showing the unfinished animation sequence:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qrd12h_r5o
We are seeing more and more animation projects swing greatly in their visual direction, and KillTube No exception. when Spider-Man: Entering Spider It splashed on the scene in 2018, achieving key and commercial success, and it caused a wave of innovative fusion of its animation style, which is also evident here.
There are a lot of anime that pushes the envelope, but KillTubethere is a feeling Chocolate Company Realize that they can do everything they can. They can really relax and have creative inspiration to guide them.
exist Our interview with Kuribayashi Last October), he was very candid about the team’s lack of experience and how they learn. It is important to handle such a career with such humility and openness. But that’s sure to worry about the end result.
Animation producer Fuye Her views also joined the conversation. “It’s definitely a tough job on this project,” she told the audience. “The team has such an ambitious vision for this project.”
She shared that the team is taking an unorthodox production approach. “For this project, we don’t actually follow the usual top-down production model. Instead, we are building the project from the bottom up, which is based on the creativity and thinking of the team.”

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For example, they say that sometimes CG animators come up with an idea, or want to try some kind of sport and then develop it into a new direction on the scene. In some cases, concept art will inspire changes in the story itself.
Noda insists it is worth it. “It’s definitely tough, but I believe this creative freedom will surprise you if you plan everything slowly from the beginning, you’ll never get it.”
With the first director, artist’s first production method, over 100 employees experimented and contributed to the concept of each small aspect, Noda will surely cut her work. They share examples of drones in the world KillTubefor this, they have more than 50 concepts from a large number of artists.
People can’t help but wonder about wasted efforts. Would it be more effective to have a small, focused team of artists dealing with similar concepts? With their “bottom-up” approach, it may not be surprising that it took them so long to finish the film.
The clips they’ve been showing off have a sequence in which the protagonist Musashi jumps off the roof on the skateboard. Musashi and the background are both CG, but hand-drawn stylized visuals flowing from under his board.
This is cool! And it looks great! Its novel is not a combination of 2D and 3D – we’ve seen it before. Both Spider for and Arcane Great results were used on this level, KillTube It’s no different from these two works.
No, what separates them is KillTubeThe settings, roles and influences all of them positive with unique Japanese elements. Western hip-hop and street style also have a lot of influences, with the protagonist skateboarding being set to hip-hop music after a lot of graffiti. What makes it so unique is that they choose to embrace all of this Japanese and they try to rely on.
The group held theKillTube Quiz” is to share some interesting Japanese trivia, for example, 300 years ago, the site of the famous Shibuya crosswalk was a river where farmers would wash rice. KillTube From something in Japanese mythology or in real world history, the world has inspired the world in some way.
Then, they took a little time to announce the voices of the main three characters. Kikuchiyo will be Kengo KawanishiLeo will be Sakura Librarythe protagonist Musashi will be Yui Tsukada. Showcased some of the announced special visuals for which they commissioned a graffiti artist from New York.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe9j7d-c97w
As the group approached the finish line, the host asked the last question: Is the budget OK? In Ann’s previous interview with him, Curibayasi said their budget KillTube It was 1 billion yen (about 6.68 million US dollars at the time). When in the panel discussion, in another surprisingly candid moment, Curibayasi said they didn’t have enough time. You might feel a little nervous in the room, but he is unwavering.
What is one way they deal with budget shortages? They are launching a “KillTube Supporters’ stores “They are selling what you’ll see, which is the highest level of crowdfunding.
It’s alive here.
Despite the same nomenclature, this is not a crowdfunding campaign at all. There is no outward-oriented funding goal to ensure successful contributors. No campaign page breaks the money spent or claims that the project won’t happen without the support of fans.
Three “rewards” – composition can be done through the framework of crowdfunding campaigns at the time of writing – included in stylized Japanese calligraphy after you KillTube Posters carry your similarity and have the chance to appear as KillTube Background characters.
The final credit included is $100. Adapted into KillTube The style and appearance of the poster as background characters are as high as $15,000 and $20,000, respectively.
Despite the production dilemma, it sounds like the team is absolutely exploding in making this movie, which is very important to keep the passion burning. In an era where AI penetrates the art world in many ways, it’s great to see a creative project putting itself in an artist-driven process.
We must hope for Kuribayashi and the team Chocolate Company All the puzzles can be combined and a compelling movie can be made from them.