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Kenji Kamiyama, I.G's 'au Unlimited Future Laboratory' Anime Short Posted

Japanese phone service and internet provider au began streaming the "A.U.F.L." (au Unlimited Future Laboratory) anime short on Wednesday. au collaborated with Production I.G and Kenji Kamiyama's Steve N' Steven company to create the ad and animation for au and KDDI's "au Mirai Kenkyū-jo" (au Future Laboratory) website.

Kamiyama wrote and directed the short, and Yūgo Kanno (Library War, Psycho-Pass) handled the music. The short's cast includes Jun Fukuyama as Daisuke Kido, Ayane Sakura as Yu Mizue, and Ai Kakuma as Fyūto. Other cast members include Masaki Terasoma, Kairi Satake, and Wataru Takagi.

The short takes place at the KDDI R&D laboratory, where scientists are creating a telephone that can call the future, but an incident occurs when they are using the phone.

Kamiyama (Eden of the East, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) and his company also helped au design images of future cellphones and wearable devices, and Kamiyama is directing Production I.G in making more animation and images for the website in order to make the site more appealing for users to navigate. The website will serve as a portal for au to teach customers about the future of devices and communication with simplicity. The animated navigator girl on the website is named Fyūto (pictured below).

Kamiyama also created a "Xi AVANT" anime short with NTT Docomo and produced a series of Pepsi Nex ads in conjunction with his 009 Re:Cyborg film.