December 22 film uses motion capture, generative AI
Motion capture studio Eins shared a new trailer for its upcoming Shi ga Utsukushii Nante Dare ga Itta (Who Said Death Was Beautiful?) animated film on Saturday. The trailer teases the film’s plot.
The studio also released the full version of the movie’s acapella theme song “Kioku,” sung by Momonnu.
The film adapts Rika Hirotsu‘s book of the same name. The story is set in a Japan that is wracked by a zombie plague, with the government only treating those that can be cured, and confining the rest of the zombies into a walled enclave. The story centers on Rei, a poet who is infected but is taking treatment, as well as Rei’s younger sister Yūna, and their doctor Rika. When the zombies break through the wall, Rika enlists the help of a people smuggler named Takeshiba and urges Rei and Yūna to seek treatment overseas, but Rei is resolved to go home and die there. Rei and Yūna travel to a a distant and isolated land, but find grotesqueries wherever they go.
The cast includes Ryōki Nagae as Rei, Rika Mayama as Yūna, Yurika Nakamura as Rika, and Takeshi James Yamada as Takeshiba.
Ryō Nakajima is directing the film, with a script by Takahiro Tsuzuki and Reiko Honjō. Katsura Rokkaku and Sanpo Yokoi are designing the characters. Shinya Kiyokawa is composing the music. Eins is producing the film through a combination of motion capture technology and generative AI. Eins announced the anime on September 28.
The film will open in Japan on December 22.
Sources: Motion capture studio Eins’ YouTube channel, Comic Natalie
