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Takashi Murakami's 6HP Six Hearts Princess Gets TV Anime
posted on by Egan Loo
The February issue of the long-running contemporary art magazine Bijutsu Techō announced on its back cover on Saturday that a television anime series of the 6HP - Six Hearts Princess project will air in 2016. World-renowned contemporary artist Takashi Murakami is credited for planning the majokko (magical girl or magcial princess) project, creating the original concept, and directing at Studio Poncotan.
The artist mebae (C – Control – The Money and Soul of Possibility, Aura: Maryūinkōga Saigo no Tatakai, Tailenders) is the character designer and animation director. Studio Poncotan's Musashi Miura is serving as CG animation director, and Yumi Nonoichiya is editing. JNTHED, the Tokyo artist who worked on the mechanical designs for Metal Gear Acid and Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops, drew the illustration accompanying the announcement in Bijutsu Techō.
Murakami's main studio Kaikai Kiki posted a promotional video in English and Japanese in 2013:
Japanese
Six Hearts Princess began as a series of shorts that Murakami created for his Versailles exhibition in France in 2010. He then collaborated with famed make-up artist Shu Uemura on a tie-in anime short to their "Six Hearts Princess" cosmetics line in 2013. The character designer for these previous shorts was also mebae, and JNTHED designed for the 2013 short. The 2013 short featured the theme song "Pink and Black" by virtual idol Hatsune Miku and composer livetune:
Murakami made his directorial debut on a live-action film in 2013 with Mememe no Kurage. JNTHED collaborated on the art design for that film as well, and he is also working on the art design and mechanical design for the sequel Mememe no Kurage 2.
In 2010, Murakami art-directed a magazine cover featuring American singer Britney Spears. Manga creator Seiji Matsuyama later revealed that the photoshoot was an indirect protest against the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's bill to restrict sexualized depictions of "nonexistent youths." Vice Governor Naoki Inose had shown Matsuyama's Okusama wa Shōgakusei manga on television as an example of which manga should be restricted. Murakami then asked Matsuyama via Twitter about using Matsuyama's art to inspire his magazine photoshoot. Murakami's Kakikai and Kiki mascot characters also became balloon floats in Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in New York City in 2010.
Source: animeanime.jp
