Animation Magazine — October 10, 2022
‘ONI: Thunder God’s Tale’: Dice Tsutsumi Introduces His Oddball Pantheon (Exclusive Art)

***This article originally appeared in the November ’22 issue of Animation Magazine (No. 324)***

ONI: Thunder God’s Tale, the new limited series from Tonko House, the indie studio behind the 2014 Oscar-nominated short The Dam Keeper, is one of the much-anticipated highlights of the fall season. The stop-motion-inspired, CG-animated series features a lush and physically tangible world filled with the oddball gods and monsters of Japanese mythology, where the free-spirited Onari — a brave young girl caught between two worlds divided — is determined to find her unique power that will allow her to protect her peaceful village from the encroaching threat of the gods’ mysterious enemies, the “Oni.”

The four-episode series was created by showrunner and Tonko House co-founder Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi, who grew up on tales of Japanese mythology in his native Japan. It was produced by Sara K. Sampson (Sonder), and executive produced by Tsutsumi alongside Tonko House co-founder Robert Kondo, who also served as production designer, and Tonko’s head of content, Kane Lee (Crow: The Legend, Namoo).

Inspired by a painting Tsutsumi created for an exhibition in Japan, ONI, he says, is his most personal project yet. “The painting I did was of characters from folklore I grew up with in Japan,” he explains. “At the time, there wasn’t much of a story just yet, but I felt like I would love to share my childhood memories and the things I was excited about growing up — the stories that I loved — through my lens, through my perspective. Of course, it was just a painting. Who knew that it would turn into a 150-minute story?” (Read full story…)