We Are Aliens Gets Personal

Director Kohei Kadowaki opens up about the unusual realism behind We Are Aliens, an original anime film built around ordinary life, strange distortions and memo...

What happens when an ordinary memory becomes something you can never escape?

That question sits at the centre of We Are Aliens, an original Japanese-French animated film directed by Kohei Kadowaki.

With its Japanese theatrical release approaching on September 25, the director has been discussing the unusual visual approach behind the project — including how animation can capture details of everyday life that are difficult to reproduce in live action.

It Starts With Ordinary Life

We Are Aliens does not begin with a world-ending threat or a massive fantasy battle.

Its story starts in a rural Japanese town during the Heisei era.

Two boys meet.

Tsubasa struggles with being seen as ordinary, while Akitaro is viewed by everyone around him as someone special.

Their relationship develops against the background of everyday life, but small distortions gradually begin appearing around them.

Then an irreversible incident changes everything.

The question becomes much darker:

Is this simply a story about youth, or is it a memory that should have remained buried?

The Animation Wants You to Feel the World

Director Kohei Kadowaki has approached the film with an emphasis on realism that goes beyond simply making characters look detailed.

The latest interview highlights how animation can express tiny pieces of reality in ways that live-action filmmaking cannot always reproduce.

That includes the visual atmosphere of ordinary places and even details that can make viewers imagine sensations such as smell.

It is an unusual goal for an animated film.

Instead of constantly trying to make the world bigger, We Are Aliens appears interested in making familiar things feel more noticeable.

A road.

A classroom.

A quiet town.

Two teenagers walking together.

Small moments can carry a surprising amount of weight when the audience already knows that something is going to change.

Konatsu Adds Another Side

The film's emotional world is not limited to the relationship between Tsubasa and Akitaro.

Konatsu Meguro is Tsubasa's closest classmate and serves as the film's heroine.

She is voiced by Ten Yamasaki, who is making her voice-acting debut in the project.

A character-focused trailer previously showed Konatsu and Tsubasa sharing ordinary moments, including exchanging contact books and walking home together.

Those scenes are important because they show the quieter side of the story before everything becomes more complicated.

From “Comet” to a Feature Film

Kadowaki may be new to some anime fans as a feature-film director, but his previous animation work has already reached a huge audience.

He is known for creating the music video for YOASOBI's “Comet”, which was used as the ending theme for BEASTARS Season 2.

We Are Aliens takes that visual experience into a much larger format.

This time, Kadowaki is handling the planning, screenplay and direction of an original feature.

The film is being produced by NOTHING NEW in collaboration with French animation studio MIYU PRODUCTION.

The Film Has Already Travelled Far

Before its Japanese theatrical release, We Are Aliens was selected for the Directors' Fortnight at the 79th Cannes Film Festival.

It was also selected for the Feature Film Competition at Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2026.

That gives the original project an unusual journey.

It began as an original story rather than an adaptation of an established manga, yet it has already reached two major international animation and film festivals before its domestic theatrical release.

Now the next step is the Japanese audience.

September 25

The film arrives in Japanese cinemas on September 25.

With its story built around friendship, adolescence, memory and an event that permanently changes two people's relationship, We Are Aliens is shaping up as something very different from the usual anime spectacle.

Its most important moments may not be explosions or battles.

They may be the quiet ones.

The moments that seem completely normal — until you realise they are memories the characters will carry for the rest of their lives.