Kaiju Decode: The Ring of Aidara Reveals Trailer and Cast

Tsuburaya Productions and Toei Animation pulled back the curtain a little further on their CG anime project Kaiju Decode this Monday. The official site unveiled a new trailer, a fresh visual, and casting for the latest chapter, Kaiju Decode: The Ring of Aidara, or Aidara no Yubiwa in Japanese.

Aya Yamane voices Maru, a boy from the City, while Karin Takahashi plays Coco, a girl of the Aidara tribe who lives out in the dangerous Zone where the beasts roam. This installment is set in Sakai, in Osaka prefecture.

The staff list is full of interesting names. Katsuie Shibata is writing the screenplay, Masayuki Gotou of SSSS.Dynazenon is designing the monsters, and Hollywood CG art director Sei Nakashima, who worked on Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution and even Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, designed Maru. Masatsugu Saitō handles Coco, and JNTHED of Gundam: The Witch From Mercury illustrated the teaser visual.

The team describes the whole thing simply as “a story about kaiju and girls,” and they are clearly aiming it at a worldwide audience. The project actually began back in December 2021 with a full anime short on Tsuburaya Imagination, released the same day as a VR short called Kaiju Decode: First Contact for Oculus Quest, both billed as the first part of a larger story.

That earlier piece was directed by S/N at Arect, written by Tetsuya Yamada with music by Tadahiko Inoue, and featured Nobunaga Shimazaki, Marika Kōno, and Mayumi Shintani among its cast. Veteran producers Kōichi Noguchi, known for Expelled from Paradise, and Masahiro Onda are steering the overall project.

My take: Tsuburaya and Toei chasing a global audience with a heartfelt “kaiju and girls” idea is exciting, and that lineup of designers suggests they really want this one to look special.