Anime Supremacy!

Japanese anime draws avid attention from around the world and it has a $22 billion market size. Over 200 new TV series are launched every year and they vie for the title of ‘supremacy’ in the ratings and sales charts. Anime Supremacy! is a live action drama about the rivalry between two ambitious artists at different studios to make the number one series. For seven years, soft-spoken yet strong-willed Hitomi Saito has climbed the ranks, and she is set to direct her first series. At the same time, difficult but brilliant director Chiharu Oji is set to make his big comeback after a decade.

A heartfelt and hilarious comedy-drama about making it to the top without compromising one’s vision, Anime Supremacy! is the second feature film from director Kohei Yoshino, who worked in the CG department of Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name. That experience likely helped him match original novelist Mizuki Tsujimura’s detailed and convincing examination of just how anime gets made - the pressures from the producers, the deadlines and difficulties, the myriad technical tasks that each contribute to the success or failure of the final product. There’s a similar verisimilitude in the performances of the cast, led by Riho Yoshioka of Louder!: Can’t Here What You’re Singin’, Wimp, and Tomoya Nakamura, co-star of the forthcoming Kamen Rider Black Sun TV series.

Fantasia Festival