Ready or not, here they come… There is a street where no one lives, where ghostly lights flicker in the shadows. It is whispered that children who play hide-and-seek there after dark are kidnapped by demons and disappear forever. Tonight, a boy named Hikora joins the game in search of his missing sister. The street lamps flare though no one is there to light them. The game and the terror are about to begin!

Kakurenbo (“Hide and Seek”) is a familiar game for us, and the film Kakurenbo is a full 3D-CG animation with a unique sense of horror, beautiful visuals, and it depicts a futuristic world with nostalgia. Yamatoworks brings the fear one feels from folktales to life again in this animation film. Kakurenbo was produced with the use of lightwave 3D and After Effect. Morita worked mainly on 3D CGI and editing alongside directing, while Sajiki worked on character design and all the background art. To keep the 2D look and hand drawings in the work, Sajiki actually hand-drew all the background and texture after the 3D modelling was completed. Morita captured those handdrawn data on digital and added the color.

As for the character modeling and animation, all the characters of Kakurenbo wear fox masks on their faces. This meant that Morita could give less facial expression to the characters. (The minimal facial expressions served to emphasize the atmosphere in this horror/thriller work.)

Kakurenbo was directed and produced by Shuhei Morita. Character design and artwork settings are by Daisuke Sajiki. Screenplay by Shiro Kuro, whose novels on his homepage inspired us. 2 or 3 people worked on this film.