“We knew how CG animation production works, so we felt like, okay, if this is going to be our big stage, we have to execute it in the best way possible,” Tsutsumi says. Building a solid foundation in the studio production system they later carried to their new endeavor, Tsutsumi handled lighting design and character shading on the 2013 BAFTA-winning feature, while Kondo did set design and shading. No stranger to CG pipelines, the Tonko House co-founders originally met at Pixar, where they both worked as art directors on Monsters University. “One of the reasons why it turned into a CG animation is that the story became much bigger and deeper than when I first started the project,” says Tsutsumi, recounting how once he started working with Japanese anime writer and filmmaker Mari Okada ( Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms, Anohana, The Anthem of the Heart, A Whisker Away), the project “turned into something that I was a lot more excited about and a lot more personally connected with.” ON: Thunder God’s Tale – concept artwork by Dice Tsutsumi (Animation Magazine Exclusive)

Initially conceived as a stop-motion production using puppets, ONI continued to evolve until it became apparent the studio would never be able to complete the series on time using painstaking stop-motion techniques, and it would have to be done in CG. “I felt like, ‘Yeah, that idea of humans fearing people who are different from themselves, that’s the same today.’ We live in a world where we still are afraid of people who look different or speak different languages or have different cultures.” “That concept really inspired me,” he recalls. But these monsters from ancient Japan, he notes, may have actually been outsiders - either foreigners or indigenous communities with people who looked very different from the mainstream Japanese population. Known as monsters or devils in Japanese mythology, oni are typically portrayed as villains. While Japanese folklore may have served as inspiration for ONI, the story is completely his own, says Tsutsumi, who was honored in 2021 with the June Foray Award at the 48th Annie Awards. Who knew that it would turn into a 150-minute story?” Between Two Worlds: According to creator Dice Tsutsumi, the four-part series ONI: Thunder God’s Tale tells a story that is personal for him and for the creative team involved. “At the time, there wasn’t much of a story just yet, but I felt like I would love to share my childhood memories and the things I was excited about growing up - the stories that I loved - through my lens, through my perspective. “The painting I did was of characters from folklore I grew up with in Japan,” he explains.

Inspired by a painting Tsutsumi created for an exhibition in Japan, ONI, he says, is his most personal project yet. Sampson ( Sonder), and executive produced by Tsutsumi alongside Tonko House co-founder Robert Kondo, who also served as production designer, and Tonko’s head of content, Kane Lee ( Crow: The Legend, Namoo). The four-episode series was created by showrunner and Tonko House co-founder Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi, who grew up on tales of Japanese mythology in his native Japan. The stop-motion-inspired, CG-animated series features a lush and physically tangible world filled with the oddball gods and monsters of Japanese mythology, where the free-spirited Onari - a brave young girl caught between two worlds divided - is determined to find her unique power that will allow her to protect her peaceful village from the encroaching threat of the gods’ mysterious enemies, the “Oni.” ONI: Thunder God’s Tale, the new limited series from Tonko House, the indie studio behind the 2014 Oscar-nominated short The Dam Keeper, is one of the much-anticipated highlights of the fall season. ***This article originally appeared in the November ’22 issue of Animation Magazine (No.

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