Uji City and Kyoto Animation are intrinsically bonded and to celebrate this bond, the two have teamed up for a promotional campaign for the historic city. The collaboration was first announced last October with a visual and since then a 30-second anime commercial for the campaign was released back in March and now the full six-minute anime has been released on Uji City’s YouTube channel.
The full animation was originally exclusive to Uji City geographically, only available to those inside the city while sharing their location. Now though, anyone can enjoy the anime short about highlighting the romantic history of the area centered around Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji.
Uji is one the oldest and most historic towns in Japan with centuries-old locations dotted throughout the area. Uji’s long history is full of war, love, tragedy and more, all dating back to the Heian period and further. One of the most significant cultural properties of this is Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji, highlighted in this collaboration with Kyoto Animation, which has its studio on the outskirts of the city.
Uji is also the setting of Kyoto Animation’s Sound! Euphonium anime series, which features the town heavily in many iconic scenes.
Takuya Yamamura (Tsurune) directed the short, which was completed in October last year. Kengo Narimatsu (key animator on Sound! Euphonium: Ensemble Contest Arc) provided character designs and animation direction. Aiyumei Yoshida (key animator on Sound! Euphonium: Ensemble Contest Arc) storyboarded and unit-directed the short. Azusa Tadokoro (Azusa Sasaki in Sound! Euphonium) voiced the female character in the animation.
Source: Uji City on YouTube
