CATDOLL: A domestic comic is once again being animated by a Japanese company. Is this time worth watching?

At the Youku Tudou Animation Strategy Conference held today, Youku Tudou announced that another work by Hinabee author Sunny Hakuneko, Samurai Rei Enbu, will be adapted into an animation. The animation will be produced by Studio Pierrot (Tokyo Ghoul, Naruto) and planned by Candy Box Animation Studio. It is tentatively scheduled to be released in October, with simultaneous broadcast in China and Japan.

Following "Once Upon a Time There Was a Spirit Sword Mountain", another domestic ACG work was handed over to the Japanese side for full production. However, compared to "Spirit Sword Mountain", which still uses domestic animation production personnel as the general supervisor, Shi Ling Yan Wu has obviously opened up a shortcut. This animation work will be planned by "Candy Box Animation Studio". We can briefly introduce this studio. Candy Box Studio is the first animation company founded by Chinese in Japan. At present, it mainly accepts outsourcing work for animation production. It is not clear whether it has done original work. For a detailed introduction to Candy Box Studio, you can browse: Visit the first animation company founded by Chinese in Japan-Candy Box Studio, and Anitama: The first Chinese animation company in Japan-Candy Box Animation Studio President Zhu Xiao interview

Compared with the remote animation production cooperation model of Huimeng Animation and Studio Deen, the animation planning by Candy Box Studio can play a better role in communication and exchange. In addition, Candy Box Studio itself is composed of Chinese people, and has long-term face-to-face communication with Japanese animation producers, so this group of people can more accurately help Studio Pierrot understand domestic works.

Let's talk about the problems of the production of this animation itself. "Samurai Rei Enbu" was planned relatively early, and there is enough time. As it is scheduled in October, there are nearly nine months of sufficient production time. Studio Pierrot is also known as Joker Club. It feels that the more well-known works are enough to mention "Naruto". Everyone knows Naruto. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is the best in drawing and fighting in the current civilian manga. Compared with the light-speed schedule of Spirit Sword Mountain, Studio Deen Animation Production Company has three schedules in a single quarter. The first episode of Spirit Sword Mountain is basically outsourced, which can be called the conscience of the industry. Let's look at Joker Club. There is no animation schedule in October. There is a Detective Conan theatrical version in April, which is not a big deal. In this way, Joker Club should have no hands. Under normal circumstances, as employees, these people will definitely not be idle, and they should do outsourced animation. So if all these main original artists participate in the production of Samurai Rei Enbu, it would be a really awesome production lineup, although it seems unlikely. The production director of the Samurai Rei Enbu animation is the director of Detective Conan the Movie: Sunflower, and he recently directed Knights of Sidonia. He is also the director of the latest Detective Conan theatrical version in April this year, so I feel that this domestic comic produced by the Japanese may have a chance.

The music of Samurai Rei Enbu is produced by MAGES, which is the product of the merger of the former 5pb. and its shareholder company AG-ONE. The current president is the former 5pb. president Shikura Chiyomaru, a company involved in the AVG industry, and often produces some games, animations, peripherals, etc. In addition, due to Shikura Chiyomaru's personal reasons, he also produces some music.

That’s right, these guys did the music for Steins;Gate!

As for character design, those who have seen Hinabee should understand that the girls drawn by Shirakawa Sunny are still quite sexy. In fact, the author has always believed that Shirakawa's drawing books must be much more popular than his comics, but why are they not good enough!

The production team is in place, and the pre-production preparations are sufficient. The next step is to see whether the funds and manpower can be in place. If these problems are also solved, Samurai Rei Enbu should be an animation worth looking forward to. If it is fast, the information should be initially released in March. I hope to see the complete PV of the animation as soon as possible, which also means that the Japanese side has not delayed the progress of the animation production. After all, the earlier the animation is done, the higher the degree of completion.