Grotesqqque gives Atsushi Nishigori room to create without limits
After years of helping shape other people’s anime, veteran animator Atsushi Nishigori is finally presenting a feature built around his own backlog of characters, images and ideas. His career includes work at Gainax, the influential studio behind FLCL and Neon Genesis Evangelion, as well as credits on The Idolmaster, Darling in the Franxx and Shin Evangelion.
Produced by CloverWorks, Grotesqqque is an original 104-minute anthology scheduled to premiere in Japan on 6 November 2026. The film had its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival on 24 July, with Nishigori attending the screening.
The project allowed Nishigori to bring ideas he had been carrying for years to the screen. Rather than fitting them into an established franchise, he asked to make a work where he could follow his imagination wherever it led.
Three stories, three very different worlds
Grotesqqque contains three distinct tales: an alien comedy, a battle royale involving girls in a world where morning never arrives, and a vampire story set long after humanity has vanished.
The middle chapter, “Yoroshiku★Shoujo”, combines explosions, action and violence with quieter concerns. Nishigori wanted the relationships between the girls, the things they value and the emotions they struggle to protect to matter just as much as the spectacle.
That preference for opposing ideas runs through the entire film. Science fiction, battle anime and vampire fantasy are not designed to blend into one smooth genre experience. Their differences are part of the point.
A deliberately unfinished feeling
The title suggests something distorted, strange or unsettling, but Nishigori uses the idea more broadly. To him, the film is a collection of unusual thoughts, images and feelings that do not necessarily fit together neatly.
Some emotions and ideas remained unclear even to the filmmaker during production. Instead of treating that uncertainty as a problem, he allowed the unfinished quality to become part of the film’s identity.
Nishigori began with characters and visual concepts rather than a fixed theme. He describes the result as resembling a long-form music video: the animation establishes the mood first, with the music then shaped to match it.
That approach recalls the close relationship between image, character and music found in works such as FLCL and Cowboy Bebop. The soundtrack is not simply background material; it helps determine the rhythm of each section and the feature as a whole.
Keeping an anthology in rhythm
Anthology films such as Neo Tokyo, Memories, Genius Party and Star Wars: Visions can feel fragmented even when their stories share broad themes. Nishigori approached that challenge by giving each segment its own look and pace while carefully considering how the three sections work together.
“Nocturne”, the third story, begins after humanity has disappeared. Instead of making the apocalypse the central event, Nishigori focuses on four girls living among the remains of the world. The missing history is left for viewers to imagine.
Across the anthology, repeated places, emotions and visual elements hint at connections. Nishigori has not confirmed whether the stories occupy a shared multiverse, preferring audiences to interpret the echoes for themselves.
He also sees a conceptual relationship between “Nocturne” and Darling in the Franxx, although the two works are not directly connected. The links are better understood as character and thematic echoes than as explicit continuity.
Originality without losing the audience
Nishigori’s aim was not simply to empty his creative archive onto the screen. He wanted those accumulated influences and ideas to become something new, original and enjoyable rather than an obscure exercise in experimentation.
That balance shaped the production: the animation needed to feel distinctive while still delivering pure entertainment. Nishigori hopes viewers will approach the film like a festival, allowing the visuals and music to wash over them instead of treating every image as a puzzle requiring a definitive solution.
The film is intended to reward repeat viewings. Different scenes may produce different emotions, while recurring details could reveal new possibilities each time the anthology is watched.
For Australian anime and arcade fans who enjoy striking visual design, RETROCADE’s arcade blog covers more gaming and industry stories, while arcade videos offer another way to explore animation, design and interactive entertainment.
The film’s visual-first philosophy may also appeal to readers planning a dedicated display space. RETROCADE’s arcade machine buying guide can help when comparing a full cabinet with a more compact setup, including bartop arcades.
Ultimately, Grotesqqque is Nishigori’s opportunity to stop organising his imagination around someone else’s world. Its three stories may be mismatched by design, connected through rhythm, recurring imagery and the freedom to leave some meanings unresolved.
Viewers who prefer to look deeper should find plenty to interpret, while those seeking an accessible visual experience can simply enjoy the movement, colour and music. Nishigori has deliberately kept darker realities beneath the film’s entertaining surface.
Grotesqqque premieres in Japan on 6 November 2026.
Leave a Reply