Production I.G has created the animation for Kao Corporation's new commercial film promoting Asience shampoo, entitled "Asience: Hairy Tale." The fully animated film is directed by Kazuto Nakazawa, who gained international fame by directing the animation segment in Quentin Tarantino's world hit "Kill Bill: Vol. 1." Nakazawa also designed the characters and directed the animation. Art direction has been entrusted to Shuichi Hirata, the texture wizard behind the stunning artwork of Cannes-nominated "Innocence" and Annecy-selected "xxxHOLiC - A Midsummer Night's Dream." The graphic style of "Asience: Hairy Tale" is visually inspired by the Japanese woodblock prints, and personalized by Nakazawa's nervous and expressive brush touch used for the characters outlines. The story concept, focusing on woman's hair as metaphor of feminine life, is portrayed as a tragic love story in a samurai drama fashion. The commercial film will receive a sneak preview at Production I.G booth (B-02) at Tokyo Anime Fair 2007, to be held in Tokyo March 22 to 25, 2007.
On Kazuto Nakazawa - Born in Niigata Prefecture on March 4, 1968. Director and animator. After graduating the Toei Animation Gakuin, he joined studio Magic Bus, and is currently in force of Manglobe. His credits include "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" (animation sequence, 2003), TV series "Samurai Champloo" (2004, character design, chief animation director), Linkin Park's video clip "Breaking The Habit" (2004 MTV VMA Viewer's Choice Award) and the commercial film "Kirin Lemon Black: Monster Blacks Fights Back" (awarded Best Commercial Film at the 11th Holland Animated Film Festival)
On Shuichi Hirata - Born on December 25, 1961. Art director. Hirata is credited as background artist in Mamoru Oshii's "Patlabor 2: The Movie 2" (1993) and "Ghost in the Shell" (1995). He served as art director on Rintaro's "Metropolis" (2001, based on Osamu Tezuka's manga). For Production I.G he worked in "Innocence" (2004, directed by Mamoru Oshii), "xxxHOLiC - A Midsummer Night's Dream" (2005, directed by Tsutomu Mizushima and based on CLAMP's manga) and French diva Mylene Farmer's music clip "Peut-etre toi" (2006).
On Yoshihiro Ike - Born in Kanagawa Prefecture on August 25, 1963. Music composer and bassist. After his major debut in 1987 with the Aike Band, he pursues a solo career as composer for live action movies, TV dramas, animation and video games. He wrote the scores for many Production I.G titles, such as "Blood: The Last Vampire" (2000), "Kaidomaru" (2001), "Dead Leaves" (2004), "Oval x Over" (2005), and "Reideen" (2007).
