Ask John: Are There Any 3D Anime?

Question:
Will, or have the Japanese already started to produce 3D anime movies or series?

Answer:
For a hybrid assortment of reasons that probably mirrors America’s less than wholehearted enthusiasm with stereoscopic 3D, modern digital 3D has not proven especially successful or popular in Japan. While no televised weekly anime series has yet been produced and broadcast in 3D, a variety of anime shorts, OVAs, and movies have been produced and released in digital 3D in Japan. Toei has been one of the anime industry’s pioneers in digital 3D, releasing the 20-minute Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro -Yokai Japan Rally 3D- anime film in 2008 and the 2009 Tobidasu! 3D Toei Anime Matsuri quintuple feature of 3D CG Kikansha Yaemon, Digimon Adventure 3D: Digimon Grand Prix!, Digimon Savers 3D: Digital World Kiki Ippatus!, and Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro: Kitaro’s Ghost Train short anime films. Toei has also produced 3D CG anime shorts such as the ten-minute long 2011 Pretty Cure All Stars 3D Theatre movie. Director Mamoru Oshii first experimented with stereoscopic 3D in his 2010 CG anime short 009: the Reopening. The short pilot film based on the late Shotaro Ishinomori’s Cyborg 009, and preceeding director Kenji Kamiyama’s similar CG anime film Cyborg 009: Re-Cyborg, was produced as a technology demonstration for Panasonic 3D television sets. Toho released director Takashi Yamazaki’s 2011 CG anime feature film Friends: Mononoke Shima no Naki in simultaneous 2D and digital 3D screenings. Warner Bros. distributed director Gisaburo Sugii’s CG anime feature Tofu Kouzo in 2D and 3D theatrical screenings as well, last year.

Seemingly attempting to capitalize on the renewed interest in 3D, a pair of two-dimensional anime OVAs presented in traditional anaglyphic 3D have surfaced in recent years. The 2009 Hayate no Gotoku 2nd Season 3-D OVA was five-minutes long. The half-hour 2011 Baby Princess 3D Paradise 0 OVA was released in both 2D and anaglyphic 3D. Complimenting the show’s gag humor nature, this year’s Yurumates 3D anime TV series was not actually 3D.

I’ve almost certainly forgotten a handful of other recent 3D anime productions, but this introduction at least provides some context and example.