Legendary mangaka and film director Katsuhiro Otomo just founded a new animation studio, OVAL GEAR.

Internationally most well known for his work Akira, Otomo has also created other amazing works such as Memories, Steamboy, and Roujin Z. He has also helped work on Perfect Blue with the late Satoshi Kon, and is widely considered one of the greats from that era of anime.

It is perhaps for that reason that he chose to start OVAL GEAR. According to the press release, the new studio’s goal is to: Impart knowledge and experience cultivated by director Otomo over the years to the next generation of animators, and present to the world new animated works.

In order to achieve said goal, the studio will also be hiring animators and production staff —novices and veterans alike— to join them in their journey. Recruitment details will be announced at a later date.

Finally, OVAL GEAR announced that they are already working on a new project. Back in 2019, Otomo announced at Anime Expo that he was working with Sunrise on new film called Orbital Era. It would be a science-fiction story about youths on a space colony over the course of four seasons of the year. There has not been an update on this film since then.

Some speculations say that this new project could be related to Orbital Era based on the fact that OVAL GEAR’s official logo looks oddly similar. However, there is no official confirmation that the project is related and it remains a speculation for the time being.