Taiki Sakurai Bets On Original Anime With ‘20001 An Earth Odyssey,’ Salamander Pictures’ First Short (EXCLUSIVE TRAILER)

For much of the past two decades, Taiki Sakurai has worked on some of anime’s widest-reaching productions, almost by accident. He wrote for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, produced acclaimed original features at Production I.G., helped launch Netflix’s anime ambitions in Japan, and played a key role in projects ranging from Pokémon Concierge to Wit Studios’ upcoming One Piece remake.

Now, he’s doing something smaller, more intentional, and, in many ways, much riskier.

Today, Cartoon Brew is exclusively debuting the trailer for 20001 An Earth Odyssey, a nearly eight-minute animated short that marks the first original project from Sakurai’s Tokyo-based studio, Salamander Pictures, produced with the iconic Nippon Animation. The film will premiere later this month in competition at Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival before Sakurai begins seeking partners for an expanded series of short-form episodes.

On its surface, 20001 An Earth Odyssey is an accessible sci-fi comedy. Set 20,000 years after humanity’s disappearance, three aliens arrive on Earth to determine what happened to civilization, hilariously misreading everything they find. A playground becomes a sacred religious site, an umbrella an advanced communications technology, and a cemetery takes on an entirely different yet equally reverent purpose.

Beneath the jokes, though, lies a meditation on history, archaeology, and the strange legacy humans may leave behind.

For Sakurai, the short also represents something deeply personal: the kind of original storytelling he increasingly found difficult to pursue inside major entertainment companies.

“I Always Wanted To Do Something That Only I Could Contribute”

Sakurai’s career has been defined as much by accidents as ambition.

“I started my career accidentally,” he laughed. “I became a writer of Ghost in the Shell… because I originally wanted to become a scholar.”

A graduate of the University of Tokyo who expected to remain in academia, Sakurai reluctantly accepted a professor’s suggestion to visit Production I.G. He intended to stop by once for a quick introduction to the company, but instead found himself attending weekly story meetings before eventually writing eight episodes of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

After establishing himself as a more-than-capable writer, his transition into producing was similarly unexpected. While developing the original feature Giovanni’s Island, both the film’s producer and director departed the project after a dispute, leaving Sakurai alone with a completed screenplay.

“I had no choice but to become a producer myself in order to keep this project going,” he recalled. The film went on to win the Jury Award at Annecy and collect 17 international prizes, convincing him that producing might be the next step forward for him. Throughout both early phases of his career, one goal remained constant.

“My biggest motivation has always been doing something original,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be entirely original. It could be based on IP, but something that has an original element in it.”

“Otherwise, I feel like if you’re just copying the manga or comic book… it could be done by somebody else. I wanted to do something that only I can contribute to the project.”

After leaving Production IG with no real plans about what to do next, “I was just playing video games,” he jokes; he was headhunted by the Japanese market newcomer Netflix in 2017. That philosophy followed him to the streamer, where he spent seven years helping build the streamer’s anime business in Japan. As Netflix grew, however, Sakurai says its priorities naturally shifted.

“The company really grew fast, and it became big,” he said, pointing out that when he started with the company, many in Japan didn’t know what Netflix even was. “It became more and more conservative as it grew, out of necessity.”

“Their slogan was ‘Fewer, Bigger,’ focused mostly on existing IPs. So in those circumstances, there is no chance of coming up with any original ideas. Because original ideas are always risky, always unproven.”

He stressed that he doesn’t criticize Netflix for that evolution, calling the shift “understandable,” but admitted he grew frustrated watching opportunities for original animation become increasingly scarce.

When he left, Netflix even helped finance his transition into independence, an unusual gesture that Sakurai says he remains grateful for. But once Salamander Pictures opened its doors, he knew exactly what he wanted to make first.

Anthropology

“I’ve always wanted to do something more for kids,” Sakurai recalled of his time at Production IG and Netflix. His previous work had largely targeted YA and older audiences through serious science fiction and action titles. Salamander finally gave him the opportunity to create something families could enjoy together.

Step one in that direction is 20001 An Earth Odyssey, which follows three well-meaning extraterrestrials who hold humanity in such high regard that they consistently misunderstand the evidence civilization left behind, for better or worse.

“I like visiting museums a lot,” Sakurai said of the original idea for the alien’s misinterpretations. “When I see all these little ornaments in the prehistoric era or these little rods, the description says these rods were used for ritual purposes.”

“But I always wonder… how? How did they use these rods?” He laughed before adding, “Actually, these are maybe all bullshit, and no one really knows what they were used for.”

That uncertainty became the foundation of the short’s comedy. “If someone from the Maya period was in that museum,” Sakurai joked, “they might say, ‘No, that’s not a ritual rod. You wipe your ass with this.'”

So when the aliens find a wobbly swing in the park, their first instinct isn’t leisure, but ceremony. The humor becomes even darker in ideas Sakurai hopes to explore if the project expands into a series. One concept currently on the back burner involved the aliens discovering a handgun. Because the characters hold humanity in such high regard, they simply cannot imagine humans inventing something designed solely to kill each other.

“I made a line where Kepo says, ‘They couldn’t have been that stupid,'” Sakurai explained. “I want the audience to have a good laugh and also to feel guilty afterward,” he chuckled

Going Global

While Salamander is based in Tokyo, 20001 An Earth Odyssey reflects Sakurai’s increasingly international outlook. Art director Jessie Liu joined after sending him an unsolicited LinkedIn message from Los Angeles.

“I saw her portfolio, and I thought that was beautiful,” Sakurai said. “So I sent her a message saying… do you want to be an art director on this?”

The production ultimately brought together artists in Japan with animators from Korea and France, including longtime collaborator Eddie Mehong, while the Korean studio Maru Animation, which previously worked with Sakurai on Giovanni’s Island, also contributed animation.

“Basically,” he said with a smile, “all my friends.”

That collaborative spirit extends beyond the studio itself. Sakurai is currently writing a manga, developing a stage play, and producing his YouTube interview series My Job Is Anime, which profiles international artists working inside Japan’s animation industry.

He sees all of it as part of the same mission: creating original work while helping broaden anime’s creative community. The series of interviews also offers a practical

Comedy And Humanity

Although 20001 An Earth Odyssey functions as a complete short, Sakurai has already mapped out dozens of future episodes. He envisions five-minute installments in which the aliens investigate zoos, prisons, weapons, and countless other remains of human civilization, slowly assembling an incomplete and often contradictory understanding of what humans were really like.

While the show may get slightly more high concept, including another group of alien investigators who always assume the worst of humanity through equally humerous misunderstandings, he doesn’t want the show to get too heavy.

“I don’t want to make it into a very serious series,” he said. Instead, his goal is “to make it into a very enjoyable… comedy series. I want to make it into a memorable comedy.”