It’s been a whirlwind three days at C3AFASG19 so far, with many launch announcements and world-first contents featured in the biggest Japanese pop culture event in the region. SO JAPAN was very lucky to catch a few minutes with executive producer Ryo Aoki, who was in town to announce some important news about the upcoming “GIBIATE PROJECT“, an animation spectacle never seen before!

How did “GIBIATE PROJECT” start?

I was actually inspired by Singapore, specifically the infinity pool at the Marina Bay Sands. It was a world first, and it got me thinking that maybe I should put together an all-star team to also do a world-first kind of project.

Can you mention a few collaborations that are unusual and exclusive to “GIBIATE PROJECT”?

There are actually a lot — for a single project, we have so many special people working on it. First of all, there’s Final Fantasy character designer Yoshitaka Amano, who is working on his first new anime project in close to a decade. I’d also like to highlight creature designer Naoki Serizawa, who drew the manga adaptation of Biohazard (Resident Evil) and is also with us in the project.

“GIBIATE PROJECT” music will be provided by the world-renowned Yoshida Brothers (Ed: they are famous for playing the tsuguru shamisen) — this is their first anime-related project. So all the collaborators put together form a dream team — this is what makes “GIBIATE” special.

Can you reveal to us or give us a hint on something that has not yet been announced so far?

Well, we haven’t revealed the artiste for the ending theme yet, so please look forward to that.

If a local creator would like to collaborate in the project, how can they participate?

At this point in time, it would be difficult to say how they could participate in the project. Our goal is to create an all-star project, so we would prefer to work with the best of the best. But of course, we would be very open to that idea in the future.

Please give a final message to your fans.

“GIBIATE PROJECT” is very special in a way that many of Japan’s top veterans are collaborating together for the very first time. By putting together so many rare and special elements, we hope to create something that has never been seen before. We hope everyone is looking forward to watching it!

So what else is in store for “GIBIATE PROJECT”?! There’s still a lot of exciting news waiting in the pipeline for the big reveal! If you want to stay abreast with updates on the upcoming show, you can tune in to their official accounts listed below:

GIBIATE PROJECT Official Accounts

Website: https://gibiate.com/
Twitter (JP): https://twitter.com/gibiateproject
Twitter (EN): https://twitter.com/gibiateproject
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gibiateproject/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Gibiate-Project
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX7tIYxtatA5ZS6jMujjUfw