Today, KADOKAWA made the startling announcement that it is opening Studio KADAN, a brand new studio that focuses on cel-based 3DCG and visual effects.
There are several studios that are utilizing 3DCG in their anime series. However, there has been a sort of stigma around the concept of 3DCG taking the place of hand-drawn anime series.
The new studio is ‘centered’ around industry 3DCG veteran of Polygon Pictures, Hiroyuki Seshita. Seshita will be taking on the role of vice-president of the new studio with Takeshi Kikuchi taking on the role of president and representative director.
KADOKAWA will be a 97.5% stakeholder in the new company that will focus on the production of full 3DCG ‘cel-based’ animation, extended reality 3D modeling, projection mapping, video game CG, and visual effects for live-action films.
As of the time of this writing, there is no indication of Studio KADAN working on any projects currently. However, with the current up-tick in 3DCG based anime series, I think we’ll be seeing their name pop up sooner rather than later.