"Kakurenbo: Hide & Seek" is the first film by the new animation studio YAMATOWORKS, an independent computer graphics production house founded by Syuhei Morita, a veteran of the prolific Studio 4C (The Animatrix, Steamboy). Morita left Studio 4C to found YAMATOWORKS to create CG productions with the look and feel of a traditional 2D animation. Despite "Kakurenbo" being YAMATOWORKS's first project, "Kakurenbo" attracted some of the biggest voice acting talent on both sides of the Pacific - its cast led by Junko Takeuchi (Naruto) in Japan and Michael Sinterniklaas (Alien 9, Fullmetal Alchemist) in North America.

Screened at more than twenty of the most-prestigious film festivals around the world including the Tokyo Anime Fair, Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, and Fantasia International Film Festival, "Kakurenbo: Hide & Seek" has won awards including Best Short Film at Fantasia and the Exemplary Production Award at the Tokyo Anime Fair. Preview showings at Anime Expo, Comic-Con, and Otakon this past summer have been standing room only, and "Kakurenbo" continually receives critical acclaim. Play Magazine recently called "Kakurenbo" "as timeless as it is beautiful." Anime on DVD has said of "Kakurenbo" simply "Haunting. Beautiful. Tragic. Brilliant."

(source ANN)