Studio 4℃ takes us into battle with "First Squad"

by Chris MaGee

It's been a hell of a week what ith Reel Asian going on and the day job (the less said about that the better...), so I'm playing a bit of catch up today on the blog. One story that I wanted to go back to was something Todd Brown spoke about at Twitch a few days ago. Studio 4℃, the brilliant folks behind Masaaki Yuasa's "Mind Game" Michael Arias' "Tekkon Kinkreet" and both "Genius Party" films is set to throw us into the thick of battle with their upcoming WW2 animated feature "First Squad".

Exact plot details are still a bit vague, but according to the film's official site the setting is the Russian Front in 1942. In the midst of the bitter fighting between the Nazi's and the Russian Red Army a medieval order of Templar Knights make their appearance, possibly the result of the Nazi's search for sacred artifacts.

Interesting premise, but then it's the animation itself that is the real proof in the pudding for anything that comes out of Studio 4℃. Follow the above link to Twitch to catch the first trailer. "First Squad" is due out in Japan in 2009.