1. Second Renaissance part 1　(Mahiro Maeda　Beyond-C)
2. Second Renaissance part 2　(Mahiro Maeda　Beyond-C)
3. Program　(Yoshiaki Kawajiri　Mad House)
4. Kid's Story　(Shinichiro Watanabe　Beyond-C)
5. World Record　(Ken Koike　Mad House)
6. Beyond　(Kouichi Koike　Beyond-C)
7. Matriculated　(Peter Chan　DNA)
8. Detective Story　(Shinichiro Watanabe　Beyond-C)
9. The inal flight of the osiris　(Sndy Jones　Square USA)

December 22nd, 2002-------------------------

First, we remain stunned by the level of online interest and support. Within seconds of our posting the riddle, people were trying to solve it. Incredible.

Now, the answer to the riddle is:

A double issue cover story in NEWSWEEK, on stands today.

The article is peppered with spoilers, so be warned. The images, however, speak for themselves. The particular gem is the cover, a VFX shot where Neo is doing the impossible, just under the NEWSWEEK logo.

The article is online at: www.newsweek.com

You want more, you say? Sure (but we're not calling this an update). For those who want a better understanding of how THE MATRIX came into existence, THE 2ND RENAISSANCE is the place to start. This epic anime story tells of the many steps that led to the first war between man and machine. This will be the first episode to be released for THE ANIMATRIX, a collection of Matrix based anime shorts. Be prepared, as this particular history lesson gives visceral insights that are far beyond what is currently known about THE MATRIX. Written by Larry and Andy Wachowski and directed by Mahiro Maeda (BLUE SUBMARINE No. 6).

Coming in February, THE 2ND RENAISSANCE: PART ONE will be the first of THE ANIMATRIX episodes to launch, with more to follow. In fact, there will be new episodes to download right through the months leading to the event we are all waiting for, the May 15th premier of THE MATRIX: RELOADED. While we are not releasing all nine online (as there is a DVD on the way), those we are encoding will be complete and uncut, pulled directly from the digital source files.

THE 2ND RENAISSANCE: PART ONE. Find out how it all began.

2003: THE YEAR OF THE MATRIX.

We wish everyone a great holiday!

TheMatrix.com

Japanese creators who has been concerned with Animatrix

Date:02-Feb-2002
999 Squares's additional information about Yoshiaki Kawajiri and Mahiro Maeda.

Yoshiaki Kawajiri

Profile

Born in Yokohama, 1950. After graduating from Yokohama High School in 1968, he began working at Mushi Productions, Japan’s first and most renowned animation production company. Kawajiri decided to enter the animation industry simply as a learning step towards his childhood dream of becoming a comic book artist. In 1972, he joined the new animation studio MADHOUSE. Initially, he worked as a key animation artist on TV series such as Ace Wo Nerae (Aim For the Ace). In 1984, he made his directorial debut with Lensman, but the project that catapulted him into worldwide recognition was the wildly successful Wicked City, which is currently one of the most popular titles in the US anime market.

Combining popular novelist Hideyuki Kikuchi’s story with his own keen sense of hard-boiled action (a direct result of him being a huge movie fan) proved a potent force in bringing out Kawajiri’s tremendous directing talent and ability. Wicked City elicited huge reactions everywhere, being toted as “an animation adults can enjoy”, in a very real sense. Since then, Kawajiri continues to consistently release ambitious titles. Working on one or more projects a year, he is highly regarded not only as a director, but also as an all-around animation creator who is capable of participating in all aspects of the animation process. His ceaseless flow of titles stopped in 1995, when he undertook his latest project, Vampire Hunter D, which has just been completed and headed to US theaters this year.

Relative Links

1. MADHOUSE
2. Mushi Productions

Works that he was concerned with

1. Vampire Hunter D (2001) Official site
2. MetroPolis(2001) Official site
3. Wicked City(1992) from Nippon Swings
4. Lensman(1984) from Japanese Movie flyers

Mahiro Maeda

Profile

Born in Kagoshima,1963.After graduating the college of art and design in Tokyo that was named "Tokyo Zoukei Geijyutsu Daigaku",he joined in STUDIO GHIBLI(Their recent famous work is "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi"(The English title is "Spirited Away")) and GAINAX.In 1992 he organized a visual creators group "GONZO" with Hiroshi Yamaguch,Shinji Higuchi,Shouji Murahama.Now he has produced "FF:U -Final Fantasy Unlimited -"

Relative Links

1. STUDIO GHIBLI(in Japanese)
2. GAINAX(in English)
3. GONZO(in Japanese)

Animation works that he joined as an animator

1. Laputa : Castle in the Sky from Animeinfo.net
2. Macross
3. Evangelion(The English title is unknown)
4. Nadia in Wonder sea(The Enlish title is unknown)

Works that he directed or produced

1. OVA - BLUE SUBMARINE NO. 6
2. Game - LUNAR Silver star story
3. BLUE SUBMARINE NO. 6 -Time and Tide(Sega's Dreamcast gamesoft)
4. Space Shower-TV Station Zingle(Its spelling is unknown)

Dateline: Thursday, January 31, 2002

By: CHRISTOPHER ALLAN SMITH
By: News Editor
Source: Wizard Magazine

Although it's still unclear what exactly THE MATRIX fans can expect with the premiere of the prequel series of animated shorts titled ANIMATRIX, more details about the mysterious project are coming to light.

In an interview with WIZARD magazine, MATRIX producer Joel Silver revealed MATRIX creators Andy and Larry Wachowski will write half of the 10 shorts, with Japanese anime masters including Yoshiaki Jawajiri(* Kawajiri) (VAMPIRE HUNTER D: BLOODLUST) and Mahiro Maeda (BLUE SUBMARINE NO. 6) whose short will be animated by the same house that did FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRIT WITHIN.

What's more, the shorts now have a vague release window: this fall. They池e expected to hit the web first then be collected on a DVD at some later date.

From the November 23, 2001 print edition More Print Edition Stories

Cut! Square USA films set loose

Prabha Natarajan and Terrence Sing Pacific Business News

The Japanese parent company of Square USA partially severed financial ties with the Honolulu-based maker of the 2001 movie "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within." The local spin-off, still owned by the Japanese headquarters, now will have to seek outside funding if future film projects are to continue, company officials say.

"We're still a wholly owned subsidiary of Square Japan," says Jun Aida, president of Square USA. "[But] the instruction is clear: They expect us to be fully sufficient. Square Japan will no longer financially participate in film entertainment projects."

Aida refuted reports that the Hawaii company would be shutting down.

"Some people jumped the gun saying the Honolulu studio will shut down. That's inaccurate," he says.

The company is exploring other funding options but is being selective as to which sources of capital it approaches, Aida says.

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"We're interested if a major studio wants us to become part of their alliance network or buy us out," he says.

Square USA is a subsidiary of Square Co. Ltd. of Japan and was set up in Honolulu in 1997 to make "Final Fantasy," a full-length computer graphics movie. Square spent about $45 million building a studio in Hawaii. Offices are housed at Harbor Court in downtown Honolulu.

Parent Square announced last month it will quit the movie business due to major losses from "Final Fantasy." The movie grossed about $30 million in North America yet cost $137 million to produce.

As a result of the movie, Square expects to post a loss in fiscal 2002 of $83 million. Last year, the company projected a profit of $6 million for the year ending March 31, 2001, but ended up with a loss of $25 million.

Square now proposes to concentrate only on the video-game business.

In the company's 2001 annual report, Square President and CEO Hisashi Suzuki noted that Square USA Inc. will be run as a computer graphic production company that takes on projects funded by third parties. The move was made to avoid funding risks for Square.

Currently, Square USA is working on the animation parts of a feature film for another studio. However, Aida would not disclose the movie producer or the size of the project.

He added that the company has other projects it is exploring, including a full-length animation by Columbia Pictures to be released on DVD.

"We're constantly in discussion with Columbia," Aida says. Square USA recently completed a "treatment", a 20-page outline of the story, of the project.

Right now all its resources are focused on getting the current project out the door by spring 2001, Aida says.

Square USA currently employs 120 people in its Honolulu studio. Between May to September this year, the company trimmed its size from a peak of 250 people.

"This is the nature of the business," Aida says. "Every time we finish a major project, some people move on and some are let go. The studio size adjusts to the production."

Joe Blanco, the governor's technology adviser, says he met with Aida about two weeks ago.

"I essentially asked him if there was anything the state could do," Blanco says. "I went over to see him and talked to him about Act 221 [the high-tech tax incentive bill] to see if it could be of benefit to them. I got Square looking at that."

At the meeting Aida made it clear the company had no intention of leaving Hawaii, Blanco says.

"Jun told me the company had made a considerable investment in its state-of-the-art Honolulu studio," Blanco says.

At no time did Square ask the state for financial assistance, he adds.

"[But] we have always made the offer for help," he says. "They are such a unique company to have in Hawaii. From our standpoint we look at them as a great asset to the state."

More Information on the upcoming Matrix Anime(Matrix Revisited)

The Matrix has enjoyed a great deal of success since its release. A lot of speculation about just what was in store for the movie's two sequels has created a lot of rumors about the upcoming Animation series.

Next week will see the release of the Matrix Revisited DVD. The DVD is a "making of" DVD that also imparts a great deal of information about "Animatrix", the anime series based off the movie.

Animatrix will be 5 short films about how Earth went from here to there. The stories will detail events that caused the rise of mahicnes to be the dominant rulers of the planet and how they were created.

The series will bring some of most reknowned Japanese Anime talent. Micheal Arias will be producing the series as a whole, but each film will have it's own staff, writers, and artists. He is best known for working on one the Halloween movies. His experience in Anime may be lacking, but to make up for that they have a plethora of talent to help him out.

Yoshiaki Kawajiri of Ninja Scroll and Vampire Hunter D fame will be directing one of the films. Yoshiaki Kawajiri of Madhouse Studio says he thinks that the Matrix is a "flat-out incredible experience both visually and on a narrative level. It conviced me that a new breed of Film making had arrived". This film takes place in a simulated training program heavy in the Ninja department and eventually ends up leading back to the bleak desolate world of the Matrix.

Yoshiaki Kawajiri is also working on a second episode. The second episode is about a man who is able to break through the viel of the Matrix into the real world by pure stregth alone. He is also joined by Takeshi Koike, an animator at Madhouse Studios.

Another episode is being directed by Mahiro Maeda, director of Blue Submarine No. 6, and is a "prequel" of sorts to the first Matrix movie. His work will tell the story of the war between humanity and the machines.

Another of the episodes will be produced by Square, makers of the Final Fantasy Movie. The film will use the technology created and used in the FInal Fantasy Movie.

The animes will be released on a regular basis in about a year as a precurser to the second Matrix Movie. They will be on DVD, but it is suggested that they may also be streamed across the internet. The information on the medium is not yet set in stone.