Tsutomu Asakura

I was heading to junior high school one day when my maternal instincts suddenly kicked in. After being held hostage to those urges for a decade, I started to wonder if this feeling was really about motherliness. Virgin birth, genes, pregnancy... I journey through 10 years in search of the maternal.

I'm the only one who can't live without an oxygen tank in the underwater world. No matter how suffocated I feel, I preserve peace and harmony by pretending the selfish girl and my friends with complicated family backgrounds don't bother me.

One day a girl and a boy set off to reach their ideal place. However, the girl comes to realize that the place they had arrived was not what she had really wanted. As the scenery around them changes, they find their minds too exist in gradations.

Malice comes up abruptly. As if it is blinking. Capricious like a flapping insect. One day the boy finds a winged insect and crushes it out of disgust. Meanwhile, the elephant sees the whole situation but says nothing. From that day on, the boy is chased by shadows of the winged insects.

Yui has become estranged from her boyfriend, who doesn't even wish her happy birthday. Her friend Aya introduces a fortune teller said to be the real deal. What does destiny hold for them? This is a romantic comedy made during self-quarantine.

Graphic research inspired by photos and travel souvenirs made with oil pastels.

A mix of life tales in modern Japan where fate is predicted by your name and a fingerplay song. Are the members of this society playing into the hands of some higher being or are they living the life of impermanence?

There are three "Motifs". The complete differences between them make themselves self-doubt. The melody begins, and the music motif could not resist the impulse to dance, but the others also catching up ... Am "I" also a "Motif"? This film uses a Fugue from Bach, tries to unify similar concepts that exist in different forms, including music, visual arts, and narrative.

Why do you want acceptance? If it's not going to happen, then forget about what it was you wanted acknowledged and just have some soup, like always.

Here, everyone is an outlander. But something's not right. Everyone else has a place to sit at the table, a home to return to at will. Not him. Lonely as it may be, he will look ahead and find his place here.

Mizuki Kiyama's short animation utilizes a paint on glass technique to render a young girl's visit to a neighborhood sento (bath house) with her mother with dazzling sensuous wonder. Evoking childish fascination at daily rituals, this quotidian act amidst feminine intimacy becomes a space of otherworldly fantasy.

Communication is complicated. He tries to talk to her, but she seems unreachable. It’s unimaginable: she’s right on the other side of the table. When she tries to talk, it’s the same. At a time when “communication” is one of the great leitmotifs!

A girl goes for a ramble in the neighborhood. The friendly dog is barking as usual. Oh, there goes a cat. Wait, no, it's just a shopping bag. The old guys are laughing about something. I know a lot about this town, and yet there's a lot that I don’t know.

"You're right. There was a bug–I killed it." Late at night, only one voice wafts around the room. What lies on the other end of the telephone line is anyone's guess...

Now a grown woman, I sit on the train recollecting my childhood. That morning field baking in the sun. Making one bamboo-leaf boat after the other. The smoke from the fireworks spreading like a thick fog. And to those memories I say, "Welcome back."

Summer is coming to an end. A little girl on the beach remembers the days spent giggling and dancing with her friend. The goodbyes and memories intertwine in a mesh of sorrow and joy.

A girl made of unmelted snow has fallen in love with the dragon who brings spring. A story of changing seasons and thawing hearts.

We have limited control over our bodies, and we can't change ourselves at will. While I yearn for complete freedom, I also want to make peace with my frustration.

This story is about a place long ago, before birth and before death, that everyone knows and no one knows.

A visitor shows up in the middle of the night at the countryside house that Miyako shares with her father. Miyako goes to wake up her father, but the creature enters the house. Miyako stands frozen.

Lion Nanny rides the train and embarks on a life journey while interacting with those around her.

Brothers eating dinner, a girl watering the plants, a boy awakening in the night… The daily scenery from the house where they all lived at one point or another.

Okinawa is ominous right before the arrival of a typhoon. At first, Anri is excited by the unusual turn of events, but gradually she becomes fearful of the threatening typhoon. Then, her big sister tells her that typhoons have an eye...

Mimi is fed up with her pathetic self. One day she walks along looking at the ground like usual when she notices a suspicious flyer.

Fluffy turtles, fluffy monkeys, fluffy lizards. Discover the world populated by these mysteriously charming imaginary creatures. They have adorably fluffy bodies and are becoming an ever more common sight in daily life.

There's a pet caterpillar named Larva in my class. I don't like bugs but Larva is sweet and we become friends. But one day, I am faced with a horrible choice.

In the moments before death, one of the Battling Gods recalls his defeat in a magnificent fight. That battle transcended meta worlds, time and parallel universes as the Battling God faced off with another of his kind. All living creatures celebrated their fight with cries of joy.

The angel of wind exhales, sending fluffy dandelion seeds into a slow dance. Wind and light guide the downy seeds into the magical world of botany.

Shiroinu writes down the day’s events before he goes to sleep. One day, he opens a drawer buried in the snow and finds old diary entries. He realizes that he’s forgotten the sensations and emotions from that time to the extent that he feels like he’s reading about someone else’s life.

Everyone crosses the Red Bridge and yet no one likes him. One day, he falls into the deep valley.

Jubei is a masterless ninja who travels the land alone, lending his services to those with gold—or a worthy cause. His fearsome abilities have served him well, but a plot to overthrow the government threatens to end his wandering ways—and possibly his life.

Hikaru, who helps out at her uncle's detective agency, is tasked with inve stigating married women's infidelity and behavior. One day, the agency receive s a request to search for a runaway who looks just like Hikaru. As she investig ates, the case becomes embroiled in a secret yakuza account book.