ANIME INNOVATION TOKYO Co.,Ltd.(AIT;Minato/Tokyo; CEO Yuji Mori), a subsidiary 100% owned by THINK Corp., today announced the shortlist for the second period of its unique program. Started in March 2006, program¡ÆANIME INNOVATION TOKYO¡Çintroduces an animation incubation scheme targeting original ideas of independent creators and small-scaled animation studios. After the screening for the second application period (July – Sep 2006), 1 title was appointed as potential candidate eligible to the scheme.


This second term saw some dozens of entries many of which holding very high quality alike those from Term #1 (March-June 2006). Along with domestic applicants, the office also has accepted foreign entries and queries. This fact has made us reacknowledge that animation is a worldwide interest and also that the program is gradually but steadily reaching to the people we intended to reach.


Before entering the actual production phase, each title will setup a business entity such as LLP. The program aims to produce and distribute its works eyeing both domestic and international market.


The closing date for the coming application period ,Term #3, is due December 22nd 2006.
AIT also runs an ANIME INNOVATION TOKYO exclusive site on ¡Ægoo Anime¡Ç, an animation specific service of a Japanese Internet portal site ¡Ægoo¡Ç provided by NTT Resonant Inc. (Chiyoda/Tokyo; President Hiromi Wasai).
Introduction and process logs of the works/creators will be regularly delivered through demo images and production staff blogs, namely ¡Ægoo Blog¡Ç.
(URL¡§http://anime.goo.ne.jp/special/anime-innovation/)


¡ÈTAROPICANA¡É
The Story:
Killed by a landmine, a soul of a young peasant Taro rose up to the celestial world where he found love with an angelic beauty. Reincarnated without losing the memory of his previous life, one day Taro meets a girl with a striking resemblance of his celestial lover... and this coincidence throws Taro¡Çs fate into a completely different path altogether... The first ¡ÆMasalanimation¡Ç ever, an exotic mix of animation with Masala flavor!

Boosted by the love for tropical air and an Asian paradise belief, Drago¡Çs talent bursts out to create a fresh image of 3DCG animation, a kaledoscope of dramatic and musical excitement against a breath-taking image of tropical landscape.

Author: Drago Uno
A Shikoku origin, Drago Uno had traveled around Southeast Asia to test himself as a musician. After returning home, he deeply got into the Indian film ¡ÈMUTHU - The Dancing Maharaja-¡É¡¡eventually triggering him to make an animation to tell his own story. In ¡ÈTAROPICANA¡É he is credited also for score writing.
Not only of the sheer originality of the narrative, Drago¡Çs style of creation is very distinctive and unconventional, particularly that he makes moving images out of POSER, a 3D character design software.
Drago¡Çs award record includes: SHUEI-SHA / Digital MANGA award for his ¡ÈCoconut Taro¡É (2004) and Shockwave Award / Animation division with his ¡ÈTechno Picture-Card Show DRAGO UNO¡É(2002).


¡ÈPooky¡Çs¡É
The Term #1 selected production ¡ÈSpooky¡É has changed its title to ¡ÈPooky¡Çs¡É.

The Story:
Charming but surreal, scary yet adorable; an edgy new-age cartoon full of cute & haunting ghost characters.¡¡Designers¡Çunit ¡ÈSpooky Graphic¡É presents a great 3DCG animation piece to all the kids in the world.