ANIME INNOVATION TOKYO Co.,Ltd.(AIT;Minato/Tokyo; CEO Yuji Mori), a subsidiary 100% owned by THINK Corporation, today announced the shortlist for the third term of its unique program. Started in March 2006, ¡ÆANIME INNOVATION TOKYO¡Ç introduced an animation incubation scheme targeting original ideas of independent creators and small-scaled animation studios. After the screening for the third application period (Sep¡ÝDec 2006), 2 titles were appointed as potential candidate eligible to the scheme, namely ¡ÈTOKYO PUNCH!¡É (Author: Fredric Soumagnas) and ¡ÈHONEINU-KUN¡É (Author: Taka Kato). (Please see attached page for detail of each project)
This third term applicants¡Ç trend was that there were many inquiries and entries from wide range of demographics. As a result, for the first time, female creator and non-Japanese creator were selected as two finalists.

¡ÚProduction process¡Û
Before entering the production phase, each title will setup a business entity such as LLP. The program aims to produce and distribute its works targeting both domestic and international market.

¡ÚCollaboration with the Internet Portal site, 'goo'¡Û
AIT coordinated the ANIME INNOVATION TOKYO exclusive site on ¡Ægoo Anime¡Ç, an animation specific service of a Japanese Internet portal site ¡Ægoo¡Ç provided by NTT Resonant Inc. (Chiyoda/Tokyo; President Hiromi Wasai).
The site, powered by goo¡Çs ¡ÆCliplife¡Ç, a trial moving image sharing technology, and ¡Ægoo Blog¡Ç , features images and production process of the on-going productions under ANIME INNOVATION TOKYO scheme.
(URL¡§http://anime.goo.ne.jp/special/anime-innovation/)

¡ÚThird term candidates¡Û
¡üTOKYO PUNCH¡ª¡¡¡¡
Howard, a goofy English boy, discovers after moving to Tokyo for his working holidays, that being a ¡Ægaijin¡Ç (foreigner) in Japan can be a quite challenging experience. For Howard, everyday brings a new challenge; nobody speaks his language, his body language is out of place, the food is weird, he cannot read any sign in the street, and high-tech devices are sometimes out of control. Howard, the main hero of the series, never seem to lose his cool despite all the mishaps¡Ä Frederic Soumagnas, CG artist with a long experience in visual effects industry, has created a short animation series based on his own and the experience of other foreigners living in Japan with humor and irony.

Creator: Frederic Soumagnas
Throughout his professional experience in the visual effects industry, Frederic contributed to numerous European and American movie productions as Technical Director in Paris and in Los Angeles. Major movie titles including; ¡ÈCity of lost children¡É, ¡ÉTitanic¡É, ¡ÉGodzilla¡É, ¡ÈX-Men2¡É. In 2002 through Cyberploc Studios, an Internet based collaboration studio that he co-founded with Keiko Hirose, Frederic completed his first original short animated film ¡ÈGrand-Ma¡É. Frederic moved to Japan in 2003 to startup to manage an animation studio based in Tokyo. Frederic helped to develop contents and directed several in-house content productions and also defined the studios¡Ç R&D strategy introducing to Japan advanced methods of workflow management and efficient, low cost, production techniques. He is currently Principle and Chief Creative Officer at Monolith SKG Corporation, his latest CG animation venture.

TOKYO PUNCH¡ªspecially established web page¡§
http://anime.goo.ne.jp/special/anime-innovation/tokyopunch.html
TOKYO PUNCH¡ªproduction staff blog¡§http://blog.goo.ne.jp/tokyopunch_staff/


¡ü¡ÈHONEINU-KUN¡É
Somewhere in this world, lies a night town called ¡ÈMakkura land¡É. In the town lives HONEINU-KUN, a small puppy who loves milk and biscuit.
Honeinu-kun scatters apart when he is in shock. Moreover, his running and jumping abilities are very poor. One day, he decided to explore for ¡Èa way to became true dog¡É. During the explore trip, he comes across many friends. Will Honeinu-kun and friends be able to find what he is seeking?

Creator: Taka Kato URL:http//honeinu.com/
Born in Tokyo. Graduated from Nippon Design College. After working at a stationary manufacture company as a planner, Kato became a freelance illustrator. Her work experiences include character planning, advertisement illustrator, binding illustrator, scenic advertisement artist, and an illustrated book author. After obtaining the Mac, she started to create an animation. As an animator, she created TV program contents for kids, as well as music videos with original character. Her creative concept is an entertainment contents with plot, world-view, and cute/lovely/fun things.
Theatrical experience: Theatrical group ¡ÈCARAMELBOX¡É in advertisement art, promotional item design, TV program music video, etc.
Writing experience: ¡ÈPokketto no naka no bi-bi-bi¡É, ¡ÈShippo no kuni no bi-bi-bi¡É (publisher: Bunkei-dou)
Awards: Tokyo Anime Fair 2006, Tokyo Anime Award, General Categories, Award for Outstanding Animated Work.

Honeinu-kun specially established web page¡§
http://anime.goo.ne.jp/special/anime-innovation/honeinu.html
Honeinu-kun production staff blog¡§¡¡http://blog.goo.ne.jp/honeinu_staff