Cool Find: Japan Animator Expo showcases talented up-and-coming animators!

Yeah, I know, it’s only been a day or two since I posted our last Cool Find. Please forgive me. The reason for this, though, is a good one, as you’ll soon see: there is a time limit involved.

Japan Animator Expo (not to be confused with that other Expo with a similar-sounding name) is a cool, relatively new (started in November of last year) joint venture between Hideaki Anno’s (yes, that guy) studio, Studio Khara, and Dwango, a telecom/media group in Japan and parent company of famous Japanese video streaming site Niconico (formerly Nico Nico Douga, that offers relatively new animators exposure to a worldwide audience by giving them an opportunity to produce a series of anime shorts, with fairly little creative restrictions, which are then streamed on NND. You’ll also see a healthy sprinkling of more seasoned talent in the mix as well, in both the production side as well as the voice acting side. Still, these shorts are a great showcase of the sort of new, up-and-coming talent that is brewing in the Japanese animation industry. The animation styles and character designs are as jaw-droopingly gorgeous as they are eclectic, and the storylines/plots are just as unusual and widely varied. (You can read about some of them on the Wikipedia page.)

Japan Animator Expo will produce a total of 30 shorts, one each week. We’re currently on week 24; however some of the older videos are about to expire. At midnight Japan Standard Time (use this link to convert that to your local timezone) on the morning of Monday, June 1 (that’s less than a week from now) videos #1-12 in the series will no longer be viewable. Hopefully this venture has generated enough interest and buzz to convince them that it’s worth doing something like this again. Having this as a once-a-year event would be great, and would really spread the word and continue to bring new talent into the industry. Be sure and check them out today! (Note: unless you read Japanese, be sure to click the “EN” button at the upper right of the page.)

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you