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Animatrix's Koji Morimoto Helms Sheepman012 Stage Play

Anime director Kōji Morimoto (The Animatrix, Memories, Genius Party) is co-directing the live-action stage play Sheepman012: The Man of Multiplication with the Mushirase theater company's Megumi Hosaka. The play focuses on the theme "Evolution," and the story centers on "a man [who] experiences transformations and multiplications of himself." The play will run at Tokyo's Shinjuku Sun-Mall Studio from December 7 to 16.

The play's official website includes the following tagline in English: "At the end of repeated transformations... what do you expect to see? In December 2013, the stage will evolve at a small theater in Shinjuku. The website also includes key terms such as "Evolve!" "Desire to Transform?" "Reincarnation?" and "Natural Selection?" The website describes the story as follows:

There are eleven people. They are "Multiplied Humans", who have been split from one person. Each of them has different figures and has had totally different lives. They get together at this bar as usual. They talk with other "Multiplied Humans", update their lives and sometimes give advises to each other… One day, one of them asks the others a question, it changes their world completely. "If we have to narrow down "Multiplied Humans" to one, which one of us will be the one?" Each of their lives has difficulties, but also bright sides. The question evokes them a fundamental statement of "hat [sic] is the best life?". While the eleven people are having hard time to find the answer, the "Original", who is the woman has stated the multiplication and the new "Multiplied Human" appear…….

The production is holding a Campfire crowd-funding campaign until November 20. As of Saturday, the initiative has raised 476,257 yen (about US$4,873) of its 1.5 million-yen (US$15,350) goal. The production plans to release the play on the Ustream streaming service and on DVD with the funds raised. The Campfire campaign is offering bonuses such as Ustream live streaming access, postcards, posters, and DVDs to people who make donations at various levels from 500 to 300,000 yen (US$5-3,070).

The play's executive committee began streaming a promotional video on September 29. In the video, Morimoto and Hosaka introduce the project and ask for support. The video includes clips of production meetings with additional staff members.

Tickets went on sale on the Ticket Every website for 5,500 yen (US$56) on October 7 and are sold out.

Morimoto has worked as an anime director, filmmaker, visual creator, and art director. He collaborated with award-winning short film director Mitsuyo Miyazaki on a live-action/anime hybrid short earlier this year. Morimoto was involved with television anime series, films, and original video projects including Akira, Magnetic Rose, Extra, Ai Monogatari, Macross Plus, and Tekkonkinkreet. He directed the Beyond segment in The Animatrix, the cult fan favorite Noiseman Sound Insect, the "Connected" music video for Ayumi Hamasaki, and the "Dimension Bomb" portion of the Genius Party omnibus film.

As a founding member, Morimoto worked at Studio 4°C from 1989 to 2011. He now helms the Φphy creative team as Executive Art Director. The studio produces anime but also creates other works.

[Via Thomas Romain]