A New Direction for Rock and Roll Mountain
Animation studio Rock and Roll Mountain made its name on rotoscope animation, tracing over live-action footage frame by painstaking frame. Kenji Iwaisawa spent seven and a half years finishing On-Gaku: Our Sound that way. The studio's follow-up, 100 Meters, used the same approach to capture the biomechanics of competitive sprinters.
For Rusuban, the studio dropped rotoscope entirely. A team of young animators drew the 13-minute short entirely by hand, a deliberate creative reset for a studio that had never worked without a live-action reference layer.
Directing is Ayumi Yanagisawa (柳澤あゆみ), who trained as an assistant director at Studio Ghibli before joining Rock and Roll Mountain in the same role on 100 Meters. Rusuban is her first film as director. Music is by Yasuo Harada.
A Summer Day, Remembered
The film adapts a story from Shinzō (心臓), a short manga collection by Akiko Okuda (奥田亜紀子) published under Leed Publishing's torch comics imprint. The collection ranked 5th in the women's category of Kono Manga ga Sugoi! 2020, a major annual manga guide in Japan.
Set in August 1987, Rusuban follows a girl named Tokko, left home alone in a large house for a day. The film traces her hours until her family returns, capturing what the creators call "the special time that only children know."
Okuda explained that the story grew from personal loss. The family home where she lived until she was 18 was torn down several years ago, and Rusuban was born from her memories of that house. She added that while the work is deeply personal, she hopes it "reaches someone else's old memories, not just my own."
Producer Iwaisawa praised director Yanagisawa and the team for translating Okuda's manga into animation, noting that her work captures "the atmosphere and inner world of childhood in a way that's hard to put into words."
Screening Details
The theatrical run at Shinjuku's K's cinema includes a co-feature: Yama (Mountain), a 2010 short by Iwaisawa based on the manga of Hiroyuki Ōhashi. Ōhashi also created the source manga for On-Gaku: Our Sound, making the double bill a compact retrospective of the studio's roots. Daily post-screening talks with director Yanagisawa and rotating guests are scheduled throughout the week. A 52-page production document booklet will be available at the theater box office.
Looking Ahead
Rusuban opens August 1 at Shinjuku K's cinema for one week only. No additional Japanese theaters or international screenings have been announced.
Rock and Roll Mountain's previous film, 100 Meters, secured worldwide streaming on Netflix after its September 2025 theatrical run in Japan. On-Gaku: Our Sound was distributed in North America by GKIDS. Whether Rusuban follows a similar international path is unclear, though its 13-minute runtime and single-theater release suggest a more targeted rollout. The source manga collection Shinzō does not appear to have an English-language release.