Sunao Katabuchi’s Map of Fukufuku Short Adds English Subtitles on YouTube

Fukushima Prefecture’s official YouTube channel began streaming director Sunao Katabuchi’s new anime short Map of Fukufuku (Fukufuku no Chizu) with English subtitles on Monday.

The short’s official website released the Japanese version on March 24. It first screened at a “Completion Announcement Event” on March 5 at the Forum Fukushima 5 theater.

The film is the second “brand movie” for Fukushima Prefecture’s variety magazine Fukushima Map.

Katabuchi directed the short at CONTRAIL and wrote its script. He reunited with several staff members from In This Corner of the World:

• Chie Uratani served as assistant director.
• Manga creator Fumiyo Kouno provided the original character designs.
• kotringo composed the music.

Other staff members included:

• Izumi Seguchi handled character design and animation direction. Seguchi’s animation director credits include Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie and maboroshi.
• Mayu Ōta, an in-between animator on Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, served as an assistant animation director.
• Moe Maruta, an in-between animator on Jujutsu Kaisen 0, also served as an assistant animation director.
• Kiyomi Ōta served as art director, with background art credits on Only Yesterday, Porco Rosso, and Princess Mononoke.

The story follows Sophie, a French philosopher making her first visit to Fukushima Prefecture for a friend’s wedding. After losing her way, she encounters a mysterious “friend” and a “map,” following their guidance through detours and stops.

Sophie gradually recognizes everything in Fukushima as a form of “culture,” created by someone and handed down through generations.

Fukushima-born Kiyotaka Oshiyama, director of the Look Back anime film, directed Fukushima Map’s first “brand movie.” That short, The Red That Remembers (Aka no Kioku), debuted in March 2025.

Katabuchi has worked with areas affected by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami. He served as animation director for “Hana wa Saku,” the reconstruction support song from NHK’s Great East Japan Earthquake Project.

His anime directing credits include:

• Black Lagoon
• Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Blood Trail
• Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage
• Mai Mai Miracle
• Princess Arete
• Meiken Lassie

Katabuchi wrote and directed the critically acclaimed In This Corner of the World, which opened in November 2016. Its extended version, In This Corner (and Other Corners) of the World, opened in Japan in December 2019.

His latest animated feature, The Mourning Children: Nagiko and the Girls Wearing Tsurubami Black (Tsurubami-Iro no Nagiko-tachi), screened at Annecy International Animation Film Festival in April 2025. It appeared as a “WIP,” or work-in-progress, feature.