Ninja Scroll
It’s not too often you really get messages from the creative side of Japan aimed more directly at Western fans than native Japanese fans, but the folks at Madhouse knows that Ninja Scroll is far more popular overseas than it is at home. Hence they have a new public message in English on their site today talking about a sequel to the property. That sequel was something that’s been planned and in the works for a few years as Yoshiaki Kawajiri talked about it back at Sakura-Con 2012 and even had a sizzle reel for the property along the way. It’s been difficult to get people to invest in the project in Japan, but now the message has come down from Madhouse CEO Hiroyuki Okada about the state of the project.
It was the first time we picked up our project titled “Ninja Scroll Project begins!” on our official site (HP news) on the April 12th , 2012. This project is a sequel of the feature film “Ninja Scroll”, a Madhouse work released in 1993, created by Director Yoshiaki Kawajiri.< LINK >
Then HP news in the year of the April 16th presented that a sneak peek of the new project was unveiled at a domestic special screening of “Ninja Scroll” event and that Director Kawajiri talked about the new project at a talk show. < LINK > Furthermore, we formally disclosed in HP news of the July 25th that the sneak peek was a part of three animated short films, “Ninja Scroll BURST”, a part of the new feature film. Those short films you can watch on youtube free.< LINK>
Since then we keep quiet for a while.
But time hasn’t been freezing…I’ll tell you about it now.
On May 2013, a script for the feature film including “Ninja Scroll BURST” was completed by Director Yoshiaki Kawajiri. The tentative title was named “Ninja Scroll KOCHO”. After some amendment through internal discussion, Director Kawajiri agreed on the revised script, then we decided to step forward.
On December 2013, he finally completed storyboards. I praised his tremendous work.
And now he has been drawing key animation.Madhouse will do its best for promoting this project. “Ninja Scroll” was a smash hit in the U.S.A, so there are some candidates for financial supporters but no one in Japan has been found yet.
It is maybe because of it’s low profile. It was not a big hit in Japan. Madhouse will, then, does its best for promoting by using any unconventional ways!
We will disclose a part of scripts and storyboards at Asagaya Madhouse, a small shop which will open in the suburbs of Tokyo in March. We will display “Ninja Scroll KOCHO” so that we could conduct passion of Director Kawajiri and that you could understand his vision of the “Ninja Scroll KOCHO”world. We also plan to have the world premier three animated full-short films of “Ninja Scroll BURST” in the shop.We know this is challenge.
But we will step forward even a little.
Keep watch on Madhouse and “Ninja Scroll KOCHO”!
With scripts having moved forward and storyboarding being done by Kawajiri through the end of last year and now with him working on key animation for it, it’s pretty much the kind of project where it’s ready to go, and go big, but it’s just not finding the support it needs at home and this is an interesting plea coming from Madhouse. The talk of finding unconventional ways to produce it is certainly interesting and seeing the way Kickstarter has been used as of late to fund several Hollywood movies, one does wonder if we’ll see crowdfunding for this film.
Check out the sizzle teaser that was previously produced: