The Dragon Dentist

The Dragon Dentist
The title card for the original short anime.
龍の歯医者 (Ryū no Haisha)
Original net animation
Directed by	Ōtarō Maijō
Produced by	Tomoyuki Ogata Hideaki Anno Nobuo Kawakami
Written by	Ōtarō Maijō
Music by	Yoshitaka Koyama
Studio	Khara
Released	October 2014 (TIFF) November 7, 2014 (online) August 26, 2016 (rerelease)
Runtime	8 minutes 52 seconds
Anime television series
Directed by	Kazuya Tsurumaki
Produced by	Hideaki Anno
Written by	Ōtarō Maijō Yōji Enokido
Studio	Khara
Network	BS Premium
Original run	February 2017 – scheduled
Episodes	2

The Dragon Dentist (Japanese: 龍の歯医者, Hepburn: Ryū no Haisha) is a 8-minute-long original net animation written and directed by Ōtarō Maijō that was released as the first part of Hideaki Anno's Animator Expo. The story follows a girl who is tasked with becoming a dentist for a dragon. A two-part anime TV special adaptation has been announced for February 2017.

Production

Hideaki Anno announced the Animator Expo weekly anime shorts at the Tokyo International Film Festival in October 2014, with The Dragon Dentist as its first short.^[1] The short was written and directed by Ōtarō Maijō and produced by Tomoyuki Ogata, with Anno and Nobuo Kawakami of Dwango serving as executive producers. Animation was produced by Khara and directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki. Yasuyuki Kosaka served as character designer in collaboration with Yoshimichi Kameda, who served as animation character designer. Yuka Kawai served as art director under the supervision of Kentaro Akiyama. Hiroyasu Kobayashi provided CGI direction, and Toyotoku Yamada handled cinematography. Shin Inoie produced the anime's special effects. Yoshitaka Koyama composed the series music, while Toru Noguchi produced sound effects under the direction of Toshiharu Yamada. The short was edited by Hidemi Li, and Dan Kanemitsu translated it for the English subtitles.^[2][3]

In March 2016, NHK revealed plans to adapt one of the Animator Expo shorts into a television special, but did not reveal which one.^[4] In August 2016, the Animator Expo website revealed that the short to be adapted would be The Dragon Dentist, and that the adaptation would be a two-part feature-length anime special.^[5] Anno himself will serve as executive producer for the special as well as serving as sound director. Tsurumaki will return as director, while Maijō collaborates on the script with Yōji Enokido. Shuichi Iseki designs the characters for the special. Animation is produced by Khara.^[5][6]

Release

ONA

The 8-minute-long Dragon Dentist short was first shown at the Tokyo International Film Festival in October 2014,^[1][2] before being posted online with English subtitles on November 7.^[2] The ONA, along with the first and second seasons of the Animator Expo shorts, were removed from the series' website on November 23, 2015.^[7] Following the announcement of the TV special on August 26, 2016, the short was again made available to stream until March 31, 2017.^[5]

TV special

The two-part special will premiere on NHK's BS Premium channel in February 2017. Each episode will be 45 minutes long.^[5]

Reception

Reviewing the first two seasons of Animator Expo for Anime News Network, Kevin Cirugeda recommended the short "with reservations." He praised Tsurumaki's animation, but felt that the story overreached a little bit and attempted to fit too much content into its short runtime, writing that it showed "a glimpse of this fantasy world, but be warned that there's a larger story there that we'll never see."^[8]

Salvador GRodiles of Japanator thought that the story was "a bit weak" but had interesting visuals, and had "potential" if Maijō were to expand on it.^[9]

References

External links

• The Dragon Dentist at Animator Expo
• Official website at NHK (Japanese)