Legendary director Rintarō's latest project is now accessible to fans worldwide. The "Manga Cinema Dedicated to Sadao Yamanaka 'NEZUMIKOZO JIROKICHI'" — a 24-minute silent animation film — began streaming on the Bang Bang YouTube channel this week with English subtitles.

The short marks Rintarō's first directorial work in over a decade. Rather than telling a straightforward narrative, the film captures the behind-the-scenes drama surrounding Sadao Yamanaka's creation of his own film, Nezumikozō Jirokichi - Edo no Maki, a story about a Robin Hood-like thief and a struggling widow. Yamanaka, who died at just 28 in 1938, played a crucial role in Japan's transition from silent cinema to sound films.

Rintarō, known for Galaxy Express 999 and Metropolis, assembled a stellar creative team for the project. Character designer Katsuhiro Ōtomo (who created Akira) provided the visual aesthetic, while composer Toshiyuki Honda (Metropolis, Tokyo Babylon) crafted the score. The film maintains its silent tradition through a benshi — a live narrator — voiced by Mami Koyama, evoking how audiences experienced Japanese cinema during Yamanaka's era.

The production itself was a international collaboration, developed at GENCO and Studio M2 in Japan alongside French animation studio Miyu Productions, which handled distribution.

The short's festival run has been extensive since its 2023 debut at the Niigata International Animation Film Festival. It screened at Montreal's Fantasia International Film Festival, the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, and the Lumière Festival in France. Most recently, it played at the Japan Film Festival Los Angeles in September 2024 before receiving a theatrical run at Tokyo's Eurospace cinema in November.

Now available for free streaming, the short offers animation fans a unique glimpse into both Rintarō's directorial vision and a tribute to a filmmaker whose influence shaped Japanese cinema's evolution.