Studio 4°C Confirms ‘Future Kid Takara’ Title, Short Anime Format, Cast, September 25 Debut of Original Anime Production – Actualités

NHK Enterprises and Studio 4°C confirmed on Tuesday the “Future Kid Takara” title and short animation format for its original animation production, and revealed its poster visual, trailer video, main cast, and September 25 premiere at the Osaka World Expo 2025.

The anime short will star Yūki Kaji as Takara, a young boy who traveled back in time from the year 2100, and Honoka Yoshida as Sara, a girl from the present.

The anime will have 11 five-minute episodes. The anime was previously described as a film.

The anime short is part of the collaboration with JETRO (the Japan External Trade Organization) to launch Kickstarter campaigns to produce new anime projects with five anime studios, including Studio 4°C.

The Kickstarter campaign page for “Future Kid Takara” stated that it has reached a total of 3,323,185 yen (about US$22,200) in pledges as of December 28, 2023, exceeding its 3 million yen goal.

Yuta Sano (Berserk: The Golden Age Arc – Memorial Edition, RedAsh -GEARWORLD-) is directing the anime at Studio 4°C. Shinji Kimura (art director for Blood Blockade Battlefront, Dorohedoro, Tekkonkinkreet) is designing the original characters and is also in charge of worldview design. Author and climate documentarian Kyoko Gendatsu is the project adviser, and environmental scientist Seita Emori is the science adviser. Writer Yūya Takashima (Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury) is the sci-fi supervisor. Shun Hasegawa is the animation producer and Eiko Tanaka is the producer.

The anime will tackle the theme of global warming, and Studio 4°C is taking steps to reduce its carbon emissions in the production of the film. The studio cites the Sixth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which has stated that it is only possible to avoid a warming of 1.5°C if the world acts fast with massive changes.

The family-oriented adventure takes place in a dystopian future and centers on a young boy named Takara. A girl from the present named Sera travels through time to the year 2100, and she and Takara must survive the world of the future where global warming has wreaked havoc on the planet.

Studio 4°C previously stated that it plans to open the anime in 2025, which it considers an important time where it is the “last chance to protect our Earth.” Studio 4°C stated it wants to help people to understand the crisis not through a textbook approach, but through the approach of an animated film.

Source: Press release