About Kaichi Sato

Born in Tokyo, Japan, he made at the age of 19 with the film “Schubert” at an independent film festival held by Shueisha (Shonen Jump etc.), a major Japanese publishing company, and began his career. He has also produced his own independent films while working in TV and video cinema, and has won awards at film festivals around the world.

He has always wanted to work in North America with original works, and sensing the potential of animation, he switched his career path. He attempted to produce his first animated film, CannibAlien, with his own funds, but since he had no connections in the animation production field, he spent a year negotiating with individuals and small CG companies to create a script, storyboards, and video storyboards in which he performed all the characters in his own voice. (He was hospitalized three times due to heartache during the process.)

Starting in New York, he has won awards and prizes at film festivals around the world, including the Rotterdam Film Festival.

CannibAlien was highly acclaimed and was commissioned to plan and produce an anime corner for a popular morning show on Fuji Television, a major Japanese TV network. After the show ended, he created an original work, ANNA Kidnapper, aiming to fuse fashion and animation, which was released in theaters in Tokyo.

During the production of ANNA, he was asked to produce an ID for ADULTSWIM via Studio DEEN, and produced YAKI-GOTE, which was liked by the leaders and led to the production of Rick & Morty‘s short film.

In the process of planning the project, he remembered that the Japanese manga “Lone Wolf With Cub” was popular in the U.S., and the idea of a “wild adventure between a grown-up and a child” was pictorially linked to Rick & Morty, so he submitted illustrations and a plot, which was immediately accepted and “Samurai & Shogun” (The film was immediately accepted and “Samurai & Shogun (Rick & Morty)” was produced. The film has received over 16 million views on Youtube and has been highly acclaimed in the U.S. and around the world, and a second part was also produced.

Although he has achieved a major breakthrough in the U.S. with Rick & Morty, he has yet to achieve his original goal with his own original work, and Sato’s challenge is not yet over.

He is still in the process of planning new projects. Sato’s likes are wide-ranging, but he is particularly influenced by the culture of the 70’s. David Bowie, Japanese Samurai Drama, and The Exorcist…

Basically, he likes old and nostalgic things and is easily inspired by them. He is also interested in the human psyche and unconscious behaviors and statements, influenced by his mother, who was a psychoanalyst. He is also a satirist, as his ideas tend to arise when he pokes fun at social patterns, customs, and fads that are exercised without question by the masses.

Sato does not like to be confined to trends or existing frameworks.