Kenji Itoso Launches Coluboccoro Kickstarter
TOKYO, JAPAN | The prolific director/ producer/ designer and Kickstarter veteran Kenji Itoso will be looking to go three in a row on the crowdfunding platform with his award winning animated film, Coluboccoro.
The story will follow a young girl named Suzu as she chances upon the forest spirit Coluboccoro. Together they take to the skies visiting an unseen land where a grand adventure unfolds!
This time around Itoso has honed the craft of cel animation into a one-man show, acting as the director, storyboard artist and the animator, doing the work of almost every step in the production process from concept and design on through post production himself. His love of traditional cel animation encouraged him to rework the production process as to allow a minimum number of animators to be able to create hand drawn animation and keep the art form alive in this current era of computer aided 3D animation. Coluboccoro will be proof of concept for Itoso's new approach, allowing him to continue making hand-drawn cel animation and continue the legacy.
Voice actor Emiri Kat will be playing the challenging role of voicing the film's two main characters. Citing the need for the characters, Suzu and Coluboccoro, to connect on an emotional level given a relatively short amount of time, Itoso gave both the roles to Kat. “By having one person play both roles, I felt it would help make that connection come through more strongly,” Itoso stated. This dual performance will be a first for the famous voice actress, providing a unique and compelling challenge.
The animated film follows Santa Company as the second in a set of three shorts that will form a collective work with interwoven themes that will bring the films together.
Kickstarter link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1287579779/1478902702?token=1a2b0b6f
