This past weekend I was honored to not only attend the 10th anniversary of C2E2 in my hometown of Chicago but was honored to be invited to many exclusive press conferences. However, one of the biggest things to come from C2E2 was in the form of a small reveal to the public eye on the SyFy Live! Stage.
Fuminori Kizaki, the director of famed Afro Samurai, and its Emmy-winning follow up, Afro Samurai: Ressurection, too to the stage to reveal his latest movie project with Funimation.
As fans of the oddball, and slightly futuristic anime lined the seats in droves, Kizaki took the stage with Toshiaki Obata (Psycho-Pass), and Shuzo John Shiota (Polygon Pictures) to explain how Kizaki will dive even further into the futurism when he tackles a cyberpunkish piece of sci-fi by the name of Human Lost.
They were careful to keep the project in mystery but confirmed that the show would be set in 2036 Tokyo, Japan.
Concept art was shown with much of it being blue-hued, rugged, urban, and grey toned. The film has apparently been in production for the past four years and was looking to fill the gap in the Japanese sci-fi genre left by films like Akira, and Ghost In The Shell. The creative team looks to combine their influences and follow in the footsteps of Afro Samurai’s success both critically and popularly.
Kizaki explained that working on the film had plenty of differences than his past work, most notably that the 3-D film takes a different process than 2-D animation, which he sees as a refreshing approach, and promised a ton of action sequences.
The film was revealed to be based on the famous Japanese novel, No Longer Human, an intense partially autobiographical drama about alienation and addiction, from author Osamu Dazai. The goal is to combine the books subject matter with sci-fi elements to provide inherently complex and flawed humanity inside the secretive film. One difference Kizaki did state that the film will have from the book, despite having as much of the original subject matter as possible, would be the ending, in which they took measure to lighten up the depressing original take.
Finally, they showed off a teaser trailer, which you can view below, before showing off an even longer, and seemingly industry focus trailer exclusive to the convention attendees. Highlights in this trailer indicated that the story would revolve around medical advancements that would extend life dramatically, bringing a cost with it. Mad Max style vehicles could also be seen, and plenty of colorful Blade Runner-esque neon advertisements to paint their worlds environment. Most importantly, there was plenty of bloody conflicts, to the point where even a horse took fire. If a burning horse doesn’t send a message, then I don’t know what else does.
Human Lost will be in theaters this Fall.
Proud member of Geek Vibes Nation. Creator of The Nerd Hub. Video Game, TV and Cinema, and Wrestling enthusiast. Freelance Journalist. Chicago born and raised. I strive to make what I love my job, and I strive to give everyone else that same opportunity.
