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Fanworks Studio Showcases Little Girl Anzu Pilot Anime at Annecy's MIFA Market

Animation studio Fanworks (Honobono Log, Ganbare! Lulu Lolo - Tiny Twin Bears) announced on Tuesday that it will participate in this year's MIFA (Marche international du film d'animation) animation market, which is run by and concurrently with the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. It will offer its two-minute Little Girl Anzu (Anzu-chan) pilot animation for consideration and will pitch it to possible buyers.

The anime is based on Hiroyuki Aihara and Nami Adachi's Usagi-chan to Yukidaruma (The Rabbit and the Snowman) picture book. Fanworks previously adapted Aihara and Adachi's Ganbare! Lulu Lolo - Tiny Twin Bears picture book series. Masanori Numaguchi directed and storyboarded the pilot. Yukiko Murayama and Manabu Okada composed the music, and Kaori Hino is credited as art director. RIRIKO Ishikawa, Momoko Kouchi, Saeko Suzuki, and Ayumu Takenami star in the voice cast. Charaken is credited for planning and production.

The anime centers on Anzu-chan, a rabbit and an only child who likes to play in the forests and fields. It will be based on the first story in the picture book series, where Anzu-chan meets and passes the time with a snowman named Yuki. Fanworks is planning to turn the pilot animation into a full series.

Established in 1960, Annecy is the world's oldest and largest animation film festival. This year, it runs from June 13-18 at the French community of the same name. The MIFA animation market runs concurrently from June 15-17. The Studio Ghibli and Wild Bunch co-production animated film The Red Turtle, directed by Michael Dudok de Wit, will open the festival. The festival will also host a special screening of Cinelicious Pics' 4K digital restoration of Eiichi Yamamoto's 1973 experimental anime film Belladonna of Sadness on June 13 and 14. Mamoru Hosoda's The Boy and The Beast will run during an open-air screening at the festival.

Keisuke Matsumoto's "Into the Pocket" episode for the Super Short Comics series is screening in competition in the TV Films category, and Makino Atsushi's music video for sasanomaly's "The Synthesesia Ghost" song and Masanobu Hiraoka's Japanese- and French-produced music video for Ez3Kiel's "L'Œil du cyclone" song are screening in competition in the Commissioned Films category.

The festival also announced that it will screen the Gamba: Gamba to Nakama-tachi CG-animated film and The Anthem of the Heart anime film outside of competition. No Japanese feature films are screening in competition this year.

Additionally, Koji Yamamura's animated short film "'Parade' de Satie" and Ryo Orikasa's "Suijungenten" clay short film will screen in competition in the short films category. No Japanese short films will screen out of competition.

Source: Anime! Anime!