"ChaO" art board released

Four art boards have been released for "ChaO" (directed by Yasuhiro Aoki, scheduled for release on August 15th), a new animated film by STUDIO4℃, known for anime films such as "Tekkonkinkreet" and "Children of the Sea of the Sea." The film is set in a "future city where humans and mermaids coexist," and the art director is Hiroshi Takiguchi, who has worked on films such as "The Garden of Words" and "Weathering with You." The art boards express the unique melancholy and warmth of the city through colorful use of colors and the brightness of the light.

The model for the future city in the film is said to be the streets of Shanghai, China, and producer Eiko Tanaka explained the background by saying, "Shanghai is a famous city, but surprisingly, we don't know much about it. That's why I thought it was 'new'." Art director Takiguchi also traveled to Shanghai with producer Tanaka and director Yasuhiro Aoki to actually build the worldview. The atmosphere of the city and the energy of the residents that he felt at that time are said to have been incorporated into the film.

Takiguchi also attracted attention with his work on "The Case of Hana and Alice" directed by Shunji Iwai, for which he was art director, and it was this work that led to the offer for this role. Director Aoki said, "When I saw Shunji Iwai's work, "The Case of Hana and Alice," I thought it was great. When I was watching this film, I felt that if I was asked to do something for my next work, I would like to ask the person who was in charge of the art for this film."

On the other hand, Takiguchi said, "I'm a tricky person, so I don't use my previous methods at all (laughs). At first, I heard that they wanted to make it like 'The Case of Hana and Alice', but while I accepted that, I actually did it with a completely different design. I wanted to do something a little daring." As he said, the art of "ChaO" uses a unique technique of creating a 3D model and extracting the lines of the rendering to give it a rough feel. "While playing around with 3D during the development stage, I was able to create lines with interesting nuances that couldn't be done by hand. This time, I made full use of that. I think I was able to combine the good parts of 3D with the feel of analog," Takiguchi said, expressing his satisfaction.

The film is a tale of love and miracles that transcends race and culture. In a future society where humans and mermaids coexist, Stephan, an office worker at a shipbuilding company, is suddenly proposed to by Chao, the princess of the mermaid kingdom. Without understanding why, Stephan begins living with Chao. Responding to Chao's pure and straightforward love, Stephan gradually finds himself drawn to her. The film has also been the subject of much discussion after it was selected for the Jury Prize, the runner-up in the feature film competition category at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival held in Annecy, France.