This 3D anime could be the hit of winter 2025

CGI in anime has come a long way over the years, and while many still prefer 2D, animators like Gensho Yasuda have proven that the prevalence of 3D shouldn't be attributed solely to concessions. After years of viral Blender animations that garnered him millions of online followers, Yasuda's feature film, Make a girlis ready to make this point more eloquently than ever before.

Based on Yasuda's 2020 short film make love, Make a girl became a crowdfunding success story at the end of 2022, receiving over ¥23.7 million, well above the ¥10 million campaign goal. Yasuda previously worked as a CG animator for video game developer Nitroplus and recently made waves online with a series of Disney-approved anime shorts promoting Moana 2.

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A cyber romance with a dark twist

Make a girl follows Akira Mizutame, a young scientist who invents an advanced helper robot called Salt. However, despite the great strides, he finds himself with a creative roadblock. When a friend suggests he get a girlfriend, he takes the advice a little too well and ends up making up a girlfriend. It's a big logical leap, the comedy of which isn't lost on the film itself; nor the darker implications of the concept, which serve as the core of the film's central tension.

At first, the trailer plays like any other love story, complete with the romantic swells of an orchestral soundtrack, before it comes to a screeching halt and shifts gears. No.0 begins to question everything. She was programmed to love Akira, and Akira himself only created #0 out of a dispassionate desire to get a nebulous “upgrade” to his sense of self just by having a girlfriend. It's a pretty dark premise that sets the stage for a deeply intriguing plot.

What ensues is a suspenseful cyber romance filled with twists and turns as No.0's programming collides with her burgeoning sense of self as a sentient being. All the while, Akira struggles with what he created and tries to help No.0 while a mysterious third party follows her. Beyond the initial bait and switch, the trailer seems to only hint at a fraction of what the story has to reveal about Akira, No.0, and the nature of her evolution.

This movie looks great

His story Make a girl it's a strong sell, but that's secondary to what immediately stands out; the animation. This shouldn't come as much of a surprise to anyone who has followed Yasuda's career, but even by his standards, this film is particularly beautiful. As the official website states, it's “300% pure Gensho Yasuda,” a testament to what's capable with a theatrical budget and a skilled crew at his disposal, even if only “eight people,” according to Yasuda.

It captures the look of hand-drawn anime so well that certain shots look almost indistinguishable. Of course, in motion, this distinction is clearer, but no less captivating. Yasuda's various online animated shorts excel at expressive, lively and often subtle character animation, not to mention the way he manages to create short vignettes with little or no dialogue. For the same reason, Make a girlhis characters – the expressions they wear, their hair and their bodies – all move with considerable grace.

From 2-minute short film to feature-length thriller

From its origins as a short film to its crowdfunding success, this film's roots make the finished product even more interesting than its already nuanced premise. It's rare to see an independent animator rise so boldly in a relatively short time to be the director and screenwriter of a feature film. It brings to mind a similar story of Atsuya Uki, a character designer for Digimon who ended up directing the anime film series Cencoroll.

Cencoroll was a 26-minute short that was then extended in 2019 Centroroll Connectwhich combined the first film with a new sequel story, totaling about 75 minutes. What's most impressive is that as far as anyone knows – aside from some in-between animations – the entire film is animated by Uki. With a third film announced in 2019, chances are he's still working on it all these years later.

Make a girl feel special

Yasuda's inspiring success with Make a girl it seems to be to 3D animation what Uki was to 2D animation. It is a largely singular creative vision, given time to be realized and then elevated further nationally, all on the merits of the artist's portfolio. Hard work has paid off, and as easy as it sounds, reality doesn't always agree. Gensho Yasuda submitted the work, but as he states, it was his online followers that helped propel his work even further:

Make a girl debuted at the Global Stage Hollywood 2024 Film Festival on November 3 and shortly thereafter during the Tokyo International Film Festival. No word yet on a wider international release for the film, but it would be a great addition to an already crowded lineup of anime films. 2025 will see Demon Slayer, The man with the chainsaw, Madoka Magicaand more blockbuster cinemas, and it would be ridiculously cool to see Gensho Yasuda's work among them, on the big screen, across the globe.

Make a girl hits theaters in Japan on January 31, 2025.

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Sources: Gensho Yasuda's YouTube channel, Make a Girl official website, Crunchyroll News [Link 1][Link 2]ANN [Link 1][Link 2][Link 3]