Indie film label NOTHING NEW has announced its first original theatrical anime feature, We Are Aliens (Wareware wa Uchūjin), a coming-of-age story that follows two boys over thirty years of friendship and distance. A teaser poster, first teaser video, and a MotionGallery crowdfunding campaign have all gone live as the film moves toward a planned 2026 release.
Thirty Years of Childhood Friendship in We Are Aliens
At the heart of We Are Aliens are Tsubasa, a shy third-grader, and Aketarō, the popular boy in his class. One summer, they become inseparable friends in their small world—until a seemingly minor incident tears their relationship apart. From there, the film tracks how “memories you want to forget” and “feelings you can’t let go of” keep intersecting across three decades, leading the story to a place the characters—and the audience—never quite expect.
NOTHING NEW Steps Into Original Feature Animation
We Are Aliens is the first original animated feature from NOTHING NEW, a Tokyo-based film label founded in 2022 with the goal of building a world “where talent doesn’t get crushed.” The team has already drawn attention with projects like the horror omnibus NN4444 and the “funeral-style” mid-length film Marumarushiki (〇〇式), which helped establish the company as a rising indie force in Japan’s movie scene.
Indie Sensibility and Theatrical Scale With Miyu Production
Although NOTHING NEW began as a tiny, almost club-like team, the production around We Are Aliens has grown into an international collaboration with French animation studio MIYU Production. The film is written, storyboarded, edited, and directed by Kohei Kadowaki, an animation artist known to many anime fans for directing YOASOBI’s music video “Yasashii Suisei (A Gentle Comet)” from Beastars Season 2.
Nostalgia, Regret and Sci-Fi Vibes in the First Teaser
The first teaser frames childhood summers in warm, tactile shots that feel close to Kadowaki’s earlier work, mixing careful character animation with a strong sense of physical space. Instead of big spaceships or aliens on screen, the images linger on quiet streets, schoolyards, and intimate character moments. The title We Are Aliens hints that the “aliens” might be the ways people grow apart over time—or the versions of ourselves that start to feel unfamiliar as we change.
Positioning We Are Aliens in Today’s Anime Film Scene
In an anime film landscape dominated by franchises and major-studio originals, We Are Aliens stands out as a fully original, director-driven project that grew from a two-person idea into a studio effort involving dozens of artists. For fans who follow indie labels and festival circuits, it looks poised to sit closer to art-leaning animated features than to mainstream blockbuster fare.
The MotionGallery campaign invites supporters to become part of the process, with rewards such as script copies, studio visits, advance screenings, and name credits. If you want to follow or back the project, you can check the links below.
Crowdfunding page on MotionGallery
Official We Are Aliens project on X
