Akihiro Nishino is taking an unconventional approach to bringing his beloved Poupelle of Chimney Town picture book to screen—by handing production duties to artificial intelligence.

Cafe Group announced the creation of a 195-210 second AI-generated "live-action" short film titled "Chimney Town," produced in collaboration with KamikAI (an AI tool brand by Ikhor) using the company's WonderCanvas AI tool for production. Nishino serves as producer on the project and will premiere at the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2026 awards ceremony on June 10.

In a tweet, Nishino explained his motivation for the experiment, saying he wanted to understand what AI can and cannot do—and what work remains for humans. He noted that he's actually been working on this AI-generated live-action version of Poupelle for quite some time.

Nishino is also considering screening the short alongside "CHIMNEY TOWN: Frozen in Time," the sequel anime film directed by Yūsuke Hirota at Studio 4°C. That film opened in Japan on March 27 and earned approximately $767,000 in its first three days, selling 88,000 tickets. The anime sequel will screen at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival later this month in the non-competitive "Annecy Presents" section. A potential joint screening is planned for June 28 at the Tokyo International Forum.

The original Poupelle anime film came out in 2020 from Studio 4°C, also directed by Hirota. Nishino, who penned the screenplay for the sequel and supervised production, has become known for experimenting with different media formats for his stories. The new sequel adapts his "Tick-Tock ~Yakusoku no Tokeidai~" picture book, which released in 2019.

This AI short marks an interesting moment for the anime industry, as established creators increasingly explore how generative tools might complement or enhance traditional production workflows—though Nishino's framing of the project as an exploration of AI's boundaries suggests he views it more as an artistic inquiry than a production solution.