Japanese 3DCG studio Flying Ship Studio announced its collaboration with American company Verité Entertainment and its group company Verité Colombia for the anime series production of Flying Ship’s original CG short film Captain Bal during the Kidscreen Summit in Miami, FL from Sunday to Wednesday.

The Captain Bal short film originally screened in Japan in 2019, as part of the Association of Japanese Animations’ (AJA) “Anime Tamago” project. Masanori Numaguchi (Uchi no Oochopus) directed the short film. Hiromichi Nakajima produced it. Flying Ship describes the story:

Bal, a poor boy living on an island, gets the idea to rig a makeshift boat, hoist a pirate flag on it, and become a pirate to get rich. He takes his pig friend Bu, his sister Muge, and the giant salamander Kuna as his crew. He plans to do all sorts of devious deeds in his quest to become a pirate, but ends up doing one good thing after another. What will Captain Bal and his crew do?

The anime series for children is slated for 13 11-minute episodes. The studio has finished the pilot episode and the second episode.

Flying Ship Studio has worked on 3DCG animation for such anime as Brave Witches, FLCL Progressive, Laidbackers, and Modest Heroes. The studio produced its first original anime series for children titled Chiruta, with British animation studio Cloth Cat Animation in 2021.

Sources: Animation Business Journal (Tadashi Sudo), Flying Ship Studio