Japanese pop culture outlet TokyoScope Blog has unwrapped a gift for sci-fi anime lovers, hosting the online world premiere of HYPERSONIC music club — a never-before-seen short from the late animator Osamu Kobayashi (BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad, Paradise Kiss). The seven-minute film is set in a funky, futuristic school, where a band of misfits accidentally unleashes trouble from another dimension.
The short was written and directed by Kobayashi, who died in 2021 at age 57 from kidney cancer. The piece is adapted from a webcomic written by TokyoScope’s Patrick Macias (who shares in the post that Kobayashi storyboarded the entire thing in a one-night marathon). The HYPERSONIC music club team also features character designer/animation director Takashi Mukouda (Evangelion Rebuild, Fullmetal Alchemist, One Piece, Madoka Magica) and animators Hisashi Mori (Spirited Away), Mitsuo Iso (The End of Evangelion) and Yoshimichi Kameda (One Punch Man).
A talented animator and music lover, Kobayashi began working as a designer and manga artist straight out of high school, and went on to work on anime titles including Blue Submarine No. 6, Gurrenn Lagann, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Lupin the 3rd Part IV, Dororo and Naruto Shippuden. His first short, table&fishman, was included in the Studio 4°C collection Digital Juice in 2002.
Watch HYPERSONIC music club and read more about the project on the TokyoScope Blog.
