始発

Utopai · PAI3 · Proof of concept for TOUGH

SHIHATSU

The first train

SCROLL ↓

物語

01 · The story

A hand that won't close.

An original 3-minute short. Slice of life in the present, action only in memory.

一

The first train.

Before dawn, Ren wraps his hand. A boy across the aisle watches.

二

「手を開くな」

His fist won't close, until he remembers his father: don't open your hand.

三

「お父さん！見て！」

The boy shouts to his sleeping dad, and Ren falls ten years back.

四

Bring the sign home.

One tear, two fists, a sunrise. Then the dojo across the tracks.

継承

02 · How it touches TOUGH

Built from TOUGH's bones.

神戸

Kobe

TOUGH's city. Our train runs the real Suma–Tarumi coast.

流派

A family art

Mikage-ryū, our homage to Nadashinkage-ryū.

継承

Father falls, son inherits

TOUGH's spine, with our own characters.

悪

A villain like Kiryu

Gōda: strength with no heart. He never returns a bow.

看板

The signboard

Dōjō yaburi: the winner takes the loser's kanban.

拳

The body

Knockdown karate. No auras. Ink for blood.

03 · The creative search

Six scripts, one gesture.

12 Oct · The Morning After

A bruised boy in Chinatown.

An old cook bandages his hands. Violence off-screen.

Set aside for the director's own story.

12 Oct

A train, a song, two looks.

Colour for the present, black-and-white manga for memory.

The two registers stayed for good.

12 Oct · SHIHATSU

The defeat becomes the father's.

The fist that won't close is planted. Kobe moves on screen.

TOUGH's structure: the father falls, the son inherits.

13 Oct

"Dad!" — he turns. The kick.

The father gets a face, a teaching, a wheelchair. The shout causes the fall.

Guilt turns the rematch into redemption.

13 Oct, night

Down to the spine.

One journey, platform to platform. Love him, lose him, see the cost.

The film mirrors itself.

14 Oct · The director's script

Every beat is a gesture someone copies.

Ren teaches the boy. A vertigo into the fight. The ending on a hill above Kobe.

The film you just watched.

I liked both of them — let's go full speed.The director · 13 Oct

Couldn't we add some camera movement? These are flashbacks.The director · 13 Oct

Casting Ren

Warm, fragile, stubborn → Ren.

A · The warm one

B · The fragile one

C · The stubborn one

Ren

今

04 · Three registers · Present

Painted dawn.

Slate blue, a peach horizon, the first sun only when the tear falls.

温

Warm memory

The father, whole.

Golden light, dust in the air. We have to love him before we lose him.

墨

The fight

Ink.

TOUGH's own page language: screentone, speed lines, holds, ink for blood.

人物

05 · Characters

Faces that hold.

Ren Kanō · 18蓮

Young Ren · 8幼い蓮

Tetsuo, the father父

Ten years later十年後

Gōda, young剛田

After the beating傷

Gōda today今の剛田

The boy · 8少年

His father会社員

06 · Places

A real coast, painted.

駅The seaside station

電車The first train

道場The Mikage dojo

神戸Kobe coast

会場The stadium, in memory

家The Kanō home

踏切The level crossing

丘The hillside platform

夜明け

07 · Light

One dawn, blue to gold.

08 · Scene by scene · the takes in the cut

The film, in its takes.

The station

駅

The bandage

包帯

The fist won't close

拳

The father memory

父

The fist, closed

握る

The lesson

教え

“Dad! Look!”

見て

Vertigo

眩暈

The fight memory

試合

Home memory

家

One tear, two fists

涙

Ren gets off

下車

The crossing

踏切

The charge

突進

The other platform

帰り

「お父さん！」

Ten years earlier

09 · The fight

The page comes alive.

After

十年後

The father, ten years on. The hand that no longer closes.

制作

10 · Made in PAI3

What worked. What didn't.

0Clips generated

0Minutes of footage

0Sheets & stills

0Days of work

PAI3 does well

Every example below is a take from the final cut. Hover to play.

Painted worlds

Film-grade backgrounds, first try.

Sheets hold a room

No keyframes: one location sheet kept every cut consistent.

It holds a face

Restrained acting, one backlight, long holds.

Manga grammar

Pages, ドン, split panels, ink blood. Never 3D.

Shot lists, followed

One prompt, a whole beat, cuts in order.

2.5D & vertigo

Parallax and a dolly zoom into ink.

Where it needs help

Twelve problems. Flip each card: the take that failed, and the take that made the cut.

Cadence: asked vs. delivered

12Drawings/s asked (on twos)

18.5Test 1

13.4Test 2

8.0Test 3

Output is always 24 fps. Cadence belongs in the edit.

型

11 · What we'd carry to TOUGH

Ten rules.

A reference is an instruction.PAI copies every pose and prop it sees. Crop what you don't want.

Lead with a staging master.A frame of who sits where beats a paragraph of geography.

Build with sheets, explore at 720p.Four-view sheets give consistent rooms and faces.

Write the camera, every segment.Shot size and angle each time. Never end a move in black.

Continuity as fixed facts.Sides, backgrounds, which hand, who owns which prop.

“Richly painted”, never “flat cel”.Flat cel reads as cartoon.

Cap the emotion.One single thin tear.

Ink, not gore.Manga marks pass; keep a softened variant ready.

The director writes; PAI's agent runs.Hand-written prompts held staging in every A/B test.

Fix the limits in the edit.5,000 characters, 4 s minimum, 24 fps. Two takes per version.

始発

SHIHATSU