India & Japan Brew Animated Sake Doc

India's Toonz Media Group and Japan's Supersub LLC are collaborating on "The Taste of Water," an animated feature documentary exploring the rich heritage and future of Japanese sake. This unique film adopts a road-movie narrative, examining sake's fundamentals, historical significance, cultural ties, industry challenges, and potential trajectories.

The production employs a distinctive hybrid workflow, converting live-action footage captured across Japan into anime-influenced visuals. This is achieved through AI-assisted rotoscoping and 3D Gaussian Splatting, techniques developed in-house by Supersub, aiming to convey deeper sensory and emotional dimensions of sake culture.

Directed by Riki Ohkanda, the documentary features interactions with brewers, historians, artists, and cultural experts. The innovative use of AI in storytelling is a key aspect, demonstrating how technology can enhance artistic expression in film. Supersub previously showcased work at the Annecy Animation Film Festival. "The Taste of Water" is scheduled to premiere on festival circuits in 2027.

This partnership leverages Toonz Media Group's extensive international sales and distribution network alongside Supersub's advanced animation and AI technology. The collaboration highlights Japan's animation expertise and India's growing influence in global content creation. Both companies see animated feature documentaries as an exciting and underserved market segment.