Carlos Morales
One of anime’s best and most influential creators, Mamoru Oshii is returning in 2020
For the last 30 to 40 years the anime medium has changed and grown in some wonderful ways thanks to people like Mamoru Oshii who’s imaginative and creative mind has strived to push anime into new places and in 2020 he returns with Ichigo Animation to continue that push.
On Wednesday Ichigo Animation a subsidiary of the Japanese real estate and clean energy production company Ichigo announced they have teamed up with critically acclaimed writer and director Mamoru Oshii for an anime project planned for broadcast and streaming in spring to early summer next year in Japan.
Oshii is credited for the original story, scripting, and chief direction of the new anime series which is base on a concept he has been developing for over a decade. Oshii is responsible for writing and directing for original video anime, live-action movies, and some of anime’s most substantial series and films like Patlabor 2, Beautiful Dreamer, Angel’s Egg, and Ghost in the Shell. He has also directed the first OVA (original video anime) Dallos in 1983. In March of 2018, it was confirmed that Oshii would be directing an anime adaptation of Baku Yumemakura Chimera science fiction novels. But neither Oshii or Ichigo Animation have said if this is related to the Ichigo anime series project.
Ichigo Animation will be the sole investor and produce the Oshii anime series. Ichigo Animation is part of Ichigo’s long-term 30 initiative to invest in animation ventures to promote its Akiba Cultures Zone retail building in Tokyo’s Akihabara district. Ichigo Animation has not revealed the title and other details of the new animation.