This project saw us breathing life into Azuki’s stunning anime illustrations, transforming them into a full 2.5D animated short. It tells the story of two sisters, Shao and Raizan, and their journey into a magical world called the Garden.

Azuki is an anime brand created by Chiru Labs, whose story is co-created alongside their super-engaged community. At the heart of Azuki is 10,000 NFT avatars that give members access to the Garden, a virtual space for artists and builders.

Will you take the red bean? ⛩️

2.5D Animation Production

Creative Director Arnold Tsang was inspired by Blizzard's 2.5D cinematics, where a character tells their origin story in their own voice. With this in mind, our animation team was tasked with bringing that vision to life—but in a totally different art style.

Working with illustrations and storyboard from Azuki’s team, our animators were in charge of setting up the shots, creating parallax bases, and giving these characters smooth, impactful movements. Then, we finalised the shots in post for a polished finish, before letting Bigmouth Audio do their thing.

This was an incredible opportunity to work with Azuki’s top-quality anime art, which is something that really sets their brand apart. We received great feedback on this project, both from the Azuki team and their community. The final result is a thrilling cinematic that leaves you desperate to know what comes next.

The Team

Creative Director (Chiru Labs): Arnold Tsang

Animation: Dean Boadana-Krone, Greg Platt

Animation Supervisor: Denis Bouyer

Animation Producer: Amy Paterson

Art Support: Arthur Bozonnet

Audio: Bigmouth Audio