The YouTube channel for Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture has revealed its second promotional anime, Fukufuku no Chizu. The nearly nine-minute short is directed by Sunao Katabuchi (In This Corner of the World, Black Lagoon) and produced at CONTRAIL.
Fukufuku no Chizu follows a tourist who arrives in Fukushima to attend a wedding. After inadvertently leaving her map on a bus, she is given another one by an Akabeko (“red cow” in the Aizu dialect). Armed with the new map and accompanied by the Akabeko, the tourist embarks on a journey that exposes her to various places and people, as well as representations of the local culture.
Katabuchi also wrote the script for the short, which was originally meant to be out on March 5 (JST) until it was determined that the production needed a little more time. Other staff include:
• Planner and supervisor: Michihiko Yanai (Fukushima Prefecture Creative Director)
• Assistant director: Chie Uratani (In This Corner of the World)
• Original character designer: Fumiyo Kono (In This Corner of the World manga creator)
• Character designer and chief animation director: Izumi Seguchi
• Background art director: Kiyomi Ota (Castle in the Sky and My Neighbor Totoro background artist)
• Music composer: Kotringo
Kotringo performed Fukufuku no Chizu‘s theme song, “Meguru Tsumugu,” and also its composer, lyricist, and arranger.
Katabuchi and CONTRAIL are currently working on historical film The Mourning Children: Nagiko and The Girls Wearing Tsurubami Black. The movie is set in Heian era Kyoto, when “the city was shrouded in darkness due to repeated epidemics of plague.” An updated pilot video was released in March 2025.
Last month, it was announced that CONTRAIL would be absorbed into MAPPA. The kanpo, or Official Gazette, cited by entertainment news outlet Gamebiz said that the former would be dissolved with its rights and obligations going to MAPPA. Katabuchi posted that CONTRAIL and its name would still be around, although it would no longer be independently run. CONTRAIL was previously an affiliated company of MAPPA, and was created in 2019 to produce full-length movies directed by Katabuchi.
The preceding Fukushima Prefecture promotional anime, Aka no Kioku, was released a year ago. Look Back and Flip Flappers‘ Kiyotaka Oshiyama, a Fukushima native, directed it.
Source: Fukushima Prefecture YouTube channel
