#Toei Animation Plans to Release Experimental Video "URVAN" in January 2021

“#Toei Animation Plans to Release Experimental Video "URVAN" in January 2021”

Toei Animation has announced that its new IP research and development team PEROs (Prototyping and Experimental Research in Oizumi Studio) is now working on a five-minute experimental video titled "URVAN" for a release in late January 2021. The clip is set in Sasebo-city, Nagasaki Prefecture, and produced in cooperation with Hitoshi Oba Laboratory at Nagasaki International University's Faculty of Human and Social Studies, Department of International Tourism.

The anime's story is described as – "URVAN" is a mysterious and nostalgic cyberpunk action based on the motif of the Obon Festival, which welcomes and sends off spirits, and where the "extraordinary" and the "ordinary" intersect.

The "URVAN" project was launched in the spring of 2020. Due to travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, however, it became difficult for the PEROs team to conduct on-site interviews and location scouting in Sasebo. Therefore, they took on the challenge of producing an animation without ever visiting the region, utilizing new visual expressions and production methods.

For example, Toei Animation created the background arts based on the landscape photos of Sasebo taken by the students of Oba Laboratory. See the sample images below.

Also, for the promotion of the anime, the project will collaborate with Minato Aoba, a character produced by Oba Laboratory, who has been active on SNS (Twitter and Instagram) as an unofficial tourism ambassador of Sasebo-city.

【東映アニメ×長崎国際大学】

佐世保を盛り上げるため長崎国際大学尾場均研究室と東映アニメーションが連携して約5分間の実験映像『URVAN』（ウルヴァン）を製作

１月下旬にテレビ佐世保さんやYouTubeで公開するばい????
詳細はこちらを確認してね????https://t.co/hJ5tR2Mj0Y #URVAN #ToeiAnime pic.twitter.com/sG8OrsDrhT

— 碧波みなと⚓ (@MINATOatSASEBO) December 22, 2020

In view of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the five-minute clip will not be shown at any events, but will be distributed on Toei Animation's official YouTube channel worldwide and broadcast on the local cable TV station TV Sasebo in late January of 2021.

Source: Toei Animation press release

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