Shinomiya's anime movie 'A New Dawn' seeks to ignite conversation on tradition and progress

The film follows a young man grappling with his family’s legacy amid urbanisation

Director Yoshitoshi Shinomiya and cast members Riku Hagiwara and Miyu Irino attend a press conference to promote the movie 'A New Dawn' at the 76th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany Feb 18, 2026. REUTERS/Maryam Majd

Japanese director Yoshitoshi Shinomiya wanted his anime feature film debut "A New Dawn" to convey the value of preserving tradition and landscape in the face of technological progress, globalization and industrialization, he told journalists at the Berlin Film Festival on Wednesday.

The film, the third Japanese animation to feature in the main Competition category after "Spirited Away" (2002) and "Suzume" (2023), follows a young man, Keitaro (voiced by Riku Hagiwara) as he grapples with the impending destruction of his family's home and firework factory, once surrounded by greenery, to create space for a new highway.

It intertwines personal themes such as childhood bonds and family legacy with wider topics like the impact of climate change and urbanisation.

FADING LOCAL COMMUNITIES

The director said he thought the erosion of local communities and natural catastrophes like the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in 2011 are universal issues.

The factory where Keitaro remains, holding out after his resigned father, brother and friend leave, was once close to the sea. Now it is facing an infilled bay - sharing the same fate of Shinomiya's hometown as Japan worked to reclaim land from the waters.

The animation, which alternates soft pastel colours with more vivid, mesmerizing imagery - and even 3D illustrations - draws from Shinomiya's work in the field of traditional Japanese visual art and includes physical tricks such as filming through holes in a black sheet of paper.

The director said there was a component of nostalgia to that handcraft.

When asked about how he expected AI to affect the industry, Shinomiya said that delays in the completion of the film made him wonder whether they should tap into the technology for backgrounds, which, however, proved to be insufficiently developed for the task.

Elaborated backgrounds were key to the animation as they were evocative of the characters' emotions, he said.

Shinomiya, who has previously worked on Makoto Shinkai's "Your Name" (2016) and "The Garden of Words" (2013), said he thought people will still find tradition and human creative work appealing, despite the rise of AI - or even because of it.