A New Dawn: Review of Yoshitoshi Shinomiya’s Animated Debut
Berlin – Yoshitoshi Shinomiya’s directorial debut, A New Dawn, premiered in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival today, offering a visually striking and thematically resonant take on family legacy, environmental change, and the weight of the past. The animated feature, a Japanese-French co-production, centers on a legendary fireworks factory facing imminent demolition.
The film unfolds in Niura City, Kanagawa prefecture, where projection mapper Kaoru Shikimori (voiced by Kotone Furukawa) returns home at the request of an old friend, Chicchi (Miyu Irino). Chicchi, a member of the Niura City Council, seeks her help with his brother, Keitaro Obinata (Riku Hagiwara), who has secluded himself within the 330-year-old Obinata Fireworks factory. The factory is slated for destruction to make way for a new road.
Keitaro, the last remaining member of the Obinata family actively working at the factory, is determined to complete a mythical firework known as the ‘shuhari’ before the demolition. As Kaoru and Chicchi spend the night with Keitaro, the trio are forced to confront a shared history and the changing landscape of their hometown. The narrative explores themes of gentrification and the loss of cultural heritage as Niura transforms from a lush, green landscape to a site primed for redevelopment, including the installation of solar panels.
Shinomiya, a veteran artist with experience as a background designer and second unit director on Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name (2016), employs a distinctive painterly, pastel-hued 2D animation style. This aesthetic contrasts sharply with the more prevalent, sharp-edged animation seen in recent Japanese productions like Chainsaw Man and Demon Slayer, according to reviewers. Animation supervisor Shohei Hamaguchi previously worked on the visual effects for the series Cells at Work!
The film’s production involved France-based Miyu Productions, also involved in Yoko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita’s Ghost Cat Anzu (2024). Editor Megumi Uchida, whose previous work includes Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, crafted the film’s narrative structure, which is divided into three acts and features a fourth-wall break with psychedelic stop-motion animation. The score, composed by Shuta Hasunuma, is described as synthy and reminiscent of the 1980s.
A New Dawn is sold internationally by Charades. An early March release is planned in Japan, with potential for a wider theatrical release in Asia. The film’s unique aesthetic and thematic depth could also attract attention from specialty festivals, distributors, and streaming services globally.
The production credits include Fumie Takeuchi and Pierre Baussaron as producers, alongside Emmanuel-Alain Raynal. Anna Tomizaki served as cinematographer, and Yoshitoshi Shinomiya and Akiko Majima collaborated on production design.