Asience: Kami wa Onna no Inochi

Synopsis

Production I.G produced the animation for Kao Corporation's Asience shampoo creative challenge, titled Asience: Hairy Tale. This 60-second animated film is directed by Kazuto Nakazawa, who achieved worldwide recognition for directing the animated segment in Quentin Tarantino's global hit Kill Bill: Vol. 1. Nakazawa also handled character design and animation direction. Art direction was assigned to Shuichi Hirata, the texture specialist known for the striking artwork of the Cannes-nominated Innocence and the Annecy-selected xxxHOLiC - A Midsummer Night's Dream. The visual style of Asience: Hairy Tale draws inspiration from 18th-century Japanese paintings, personalized by Nakazawa's dynamic and expressive brush strokes used for the character outlines. Without any assistance from 3D animation, the brush lines were carefully traced with pencil on paper by the in-between animation staff. The story concept, which uses a woman's hair as a metaphor for feminine life, is presented as a tragic love story in the style of a samurai drama.