Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni (In This Corner of the World) director Sunao Katabuchi unveiled his new animation studio—Contrail—on Monday. The studio was founded on September 2 of this year, but was kept under wraps until now. Katabuchi intends to work with the studio on feature-length films in the future.

Contrail will be closely tied to MAPPA, the studio that produced Katabuchi's aforementioned breakout film, Kono Sekai no Katsumi ni—winner of Best Film at the 38th Yokohama Film Festival and the Best Animation Award at the 40th Japan Academy Film Prize.

Manabu Ootsuka, the representative director at MAPPA, was named Contrail's CEO. The studio will be located within Tokyo's Suginami Ward where MAPPA is currently headquartered. The two companies hope to cooperate in the future, but the goal of Contrail is to create an environment for Katabuchi's works to flourish, works that Katabuchi hopes will be loved by many for a long time.

Katabuchi teased his next project by posting a sketch on Twitter the same day Contrail was announced. Recruiting for artists and production staff will begin in mid-January, and the studio plans to begin full-scale production before the end of 2020.

Official site: https://contrail.tokyo/
Official Twitter: @CONTRAIL_info

Source: Animation Business Journal