Dreaming Machine

Dreaming Machine (夢みる機械, Yume Miru Kikai) is a yet-to-be-completed anime Fantasy-adventure film by Satoshi Kon. It would have been the director's fifth feature film. After Kon's death on August 24, 2010, production continued at Madhouse, where the team used Satoshi Kon's directorial tapes and notes to guide them to completing the film, though the main work such as storyboards and script was already complete. In August 2011, Madhouse founder Masao Maruyama revealed that production of the film had been halted due to lack of finances. Only 600 of 1500 shots have been animated. However, Maruyama still intends to finish the film, however long it takes.^[1]

Plot

In an interview with Anime News Network, Kon talked about the film:

The title will be Yume-Miru Kikai. In English, it will be The Dream Machine. On the surface, it's going to be a fantasy-adventure targeted at younger audiences. However, it will also be a film that people who have seen our films up to this point will be able to enjoy. So it will be an adventure that even older audiences can appreciate. There will be no human characters in the film; only robots. It'll be like a "road movie" for robots.

— Satoshi Kon^[2]

The film will center on three characters, Ririco, Robin and King – all three of whom are automated.

Characters

• Riricio: A smart, leaderly, Paprika-like character.
• Robin: A small yellow robot.
• King: A big, loyal, blue bot.

Production

During Kon's battle with pancreatic cancer, the director expressed concern about the film being finished to Madhouse head Masao Maruyama. Maruyama assured Kon the film would be completed, no matter what. When Kon died, production was suspended indefinitely until further plans could be worked out over the film. On Friday November 12, 2010 Madhouse Studios announced production resumed with character designer and chief animation director Yoshimi Itazu taking over as director of the film.^[3] At Otakon 2011, Maruyama revealed that production had been put on hold for financial reasons, but that he was dedicated to eventually be able to finish the film. According to Maruyama, about 600 shots out of 1500 had been animated at that point.^[4]

Susumu Hirasawa, whose song "Dreaming Machine" (from The Ghost in Science) is the source of the film' title, said: "I never received an official order from Kon. It's an unspoken agreement of sorts. There are scenes where he specifically requested a certain track to be used, but there are also many parts where there are no such directions, so it falls to me to choose the songs. This is a difficult task. But we must carry out his dying request, to complete this work, even without a director to question".^[5] On November 10, 2010, the album Hen-Gen-Ji-Zai, which features a rerecording of "Dreaming Machine" made two months before Kon's death, was released by Hirasawa's labels.

In 2011, founder Masao Maruyama left Madhouse to found MAPPA in order to "make new shows that we wouldn't have been able to make at Madhouse." At Otakon 2012, he stated regarding Satoshi Kon's unfinished film, "Unfortunately, we still don't have enough money. My personal goal is to get it within five years after his passing. I'm still working hard towards that goal."^[6]

There has been no news about the film since 2012, but one of the project leads, Kenji Itoso, recently crowdfunded a separate film, Santa Company, on Kickstarter. In an interview in December 2014, Itoso said he felt comfortable taking a break from Dreaming Machine only because Satoshi Kon himself had urged him not to obsess too much about completing the project.^[7]

During a Q&A session at an Otakon 2015 panel, Maruyama commented that the biggest challenge behind production is finding someone comparable to Kon to direct it.^[8]

References

External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• Dreaming Machine (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia