Naoki Matsuura directs story inspired by artisan scissor creator.
“Hizukuri,” a short anime film project that launched on the crowdfunding platform MotionGallery in October, met its goal of of 1 million yen (about US$8,500) in late December. The project aims to create a 10-minute short using 2D CG animation.
Naoki Matsuura, who has worked at Production I.G and ROBOT, is directing the short. Three-man music group UQiYO is composing the music. The cast includes Yumi Yamamoto, Kenshirou Nakara, and Nyoko Mizuki.

The website describes the story of “Hizukuri” (Made With Fire):
In a city of a parallel world. A boy finds a pair of broken scissors from his father’s belongings after he passed away.
And a boy’s mother tells him that his father had been a gardener in the past.
Then he figures out the scissors were made by Sasuke, who is an artisan living in a foreign country.
The boy travels all the way to a place where Sasuke lives in order to get his scissors fixed.
Director Matsuura commented that the story is inspired by his encounter with a real-life scissor artisan at SASUKE, a blacksmith workshop based in Sakai, Osaka. SASUKE is collaborating on the project.

Crowdfunding will run until January 27, and the short has a projected release date of November 2017. The project has plans to open crowdfunding for an English-speaking audience on Indiegogo in the first third of January.
Source: Anime! Anime!
Featured image: YouTube/MotionGallerys
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