Main Feature: The Little Battlers / Creator's interview: Miho Yata, Japanese Animation Director

Main Feature: "The Little Battlers"
The global distribution industry is revolutionized in 2050 by the development of a new, 80% shock absorbent material called strengthened corrugated cardboard (SCC) which is later applied by a toy maker to battlefields for a mini-robot fighting game named Little Battler Experience (LBX). The robots are the Little Battlers and that is also the name of the latest video game from Level-5 Inc. which has grown to rival Japan's top makers in only ten years. Its best-selling titles already include DRAGON QUEST VIII: The Journey of the Cursed King, Professor Layton and the Last Time Travel, and NINOKUNI: Sorcer of the Darkness. The Little Battlers' aggressive media-mix sales strategy for the video game release in June included at TV cartoon from March, a manga serial in a magazine, plastic models and a card game. The video game for PlayStation Portable terminals has its own unique plastic model usually not for sale. It's all very typical of Level-5 Inc. CEO/President Akihiro Hino. We bring you the lowdown on the video game, visit TV animation studio at OLM Inc. now making the TV cartoon and talk with Hino about both himself and his company.

Creator's interview: Miho Yata, Japanese Animation Director
37-year-old Japanese animation director Miho Yata created AMIMATION. A graduate of Shirayuri Women's University's department of children's culture, she studied under Oscar nominee animation director Koji Yamamura, who has won more than 60 awards at international animation festivals, and made her first AMIMATION - an animation with knitted (ami in Japanese) items - in 1999. AMIMATION became a registered trademark in 2007. Yata also produces optical toys and stop-motion animation films, and organizes workshops for making small wool mascots with simple knitting machines. We report on this energetic amimator.