Over a year has passed since the teaser pilot of the anime film KILLTUBE went viral for its frenetic, mesmerizing visuals. This year’s Anime Expo attendees got to hear about the film’s developments firsthand from CHOCOLATE Inc.‘s director Kazuaki Kuribayashi and animation producer Fuko Noda. Attendees also got to see a preview of behind-the-scenes content and new updates on the project.
Set to release in 2026, KILLTUBE imagines an alternate universe where the Edo period extends into the current day, samurai still dominate society, and citizens of Japan are bound by a strict class hierarchy. The only way to climb the ladder is by dueling with others to get to the top. These fights must be livestreamed — hence birthing the concept of “duel streaming.”
The film follows three protagonists: Musashi, a rowdy boy raised by dogs and then by a samurai; Kikuchiyo, an attractive, money-hungry con artist who uses his looks to his advantage; and Leonardo, an engineer who believes she is Leonardo da Vinci incarnate. Several recurring characters were also introduced at the panel, some of whom had chimera or mecha elements to their design.
The anime film is part of a larger “108 Experiments” project, in which the staff tests how far they can push the boundaries of what an animation production can entail. Attendees got to see part of this experimentation in action with a frame-by-frame walkthrough of KILLTUBE’s pilot, which utilized both 2D and 3D animation. Along with these two animation techniques, the team drew from video game styles as well as historical Japanese artworks, creating further layers of intricacy.
“For example, in the scene where Musashi jumps off a rooftop on a skateboard, the effects are hand-drawn on top of a background and a character that [are both] made from CG,” Noda said. “And then to this, we’ve added elements inspired by Edo period art, so it’s creating a style that’s uniquely Japanese.”
Similar to the animation’s construction, the staff’s production workflow operates outside of normal parameters. Whereas production staff is often configured in a top-down fashion, with the director at the top informing people on how to execute the vision, KILLTUBE’s team works bottom-up, with each member of the staff building on the foundation the director has created.
“Sometimes a CG animator comes up with an idea, [saying,] ‘I wanna try this kind of movement’ — and that develops into a new direction for a scene. Or a concept art inspires changes to the story itself. The blueprint gets built along the way, and that allows unexpected and exciting ideas to keep stacking up,” Noda said. “It’s definitely tough, but I believe that this kind of creative freedom leads to surprises you could never get if everything was fully planned from the start.”
The panel additionally included a quiz about the history of the Edo period, where the audience could participate for the chance of winning a KILLTUBE T-shirt. Each question revealed a new piece of history that the team infused into their film, from combining the geographies of old Edo and modern-day Tokyo to using Edo-era kites as the blueprint for KILLTUBE’s livestreaming drones.
The staff’s collaborative dedication kindled this extensive creative output. “We have about 100 staff members for the KILLTUBE team, and for everything we draw, we basically all put out ideas,” Kuribayashi said. “Even for the drones [alone], we had 50+ ideas.”
As the panel progressed, it became increasingly clear that collaboration lay as the keystone of all of their experiments. Outside of internal collaboration, the production staff took input from fans and even incorporated some of their ideas into the project, such as one person’s suggestion to create a weapon inspired by chonmage, or the topknot hairstyle associated with samurai. In another extension of gratitude, Kuribayashi and Noda thanked the panel’s host, Ian Boggs, by featuring him as a character in KILLTUBE’s newest promotional poster, as well as designing a full character page of him and his dog.
To encourage fan participation as well as garner financial support, the team additionally announced the launch of the KILLTUBE BACKERS’ STORE, where supporters can monetarily contribute to the project in exchange for a feature in the final film. These features vary based on monetary tiers and include opportunities such as appearing as a background character. The team additionally hinted at future merchandise sales.
The biggest announcement at the panel was the reveal of the main voice cast: Yui Tsukada as Musashi, Kengo Kawanishi as Kikuchiyo, and Ayane Sakura as Leonardo. The cast was unveiled through posters of the voice actors with their character counterparts, as well as a promotional video.
“We worked with an artist from New York for these visuals,” said Kuribayashi about the posters, highlighting another example of the team’s global outreach.
While KILLTUBE might seem like a daring, daunting project at first glance, the panelists showcased how they are succeeding at pushing the boundaries of possibility. “KILLTUBE is a project that will change the history of anime. It’s something that could only be born in Japan,” Kuribayashi said. “[We’re] entering a new stage of animation. Please look forward to it!”
Want more KILLTUBE? Check out the latest trailer and Anime Trending’s exclusive interview with Kuribayashi and Noda at Anime Expo 2025.
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