PROJECT INSIGHT

Trevor Hogg braves the prevailing smoke to discover the secrets behind Poupelle Of Chimney Town

A major task was being able to match the 2D character designs with the final 3D models

A fter selling 700,000 copies since being published in 2016, children’s picture book Poupelle Of Chimney Town has accomplished what comedian turned author Akihiro Nishino dreamed about for the story of an adolescent chimney cleaner who befriends a being made out of garbage, and embarks on a quest to find his father and to discover if stars truly exist beyond the smoke-filled sky. Nishino wrote the screenplay for the anime adaptation by STUDIO4°C, which is the feature directorial debut of Yusuke Hirota who has served as a computer graphics director for the Japanese animation studio.

Chimney Town is the amalgamation of three particular cities. “There is Jiufen in Taiwan which was also the inspiration for Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki,” remarks Nishino. “Shunan in Yamaguchi Prefecture has a huge factory and I was inspired by the layout of that city.

And lastly Shibuya, Tokyo.” The huge intersection known as Mandala Crossing was modelled on the famous Shibuya Scramble Crossing. Obscuring the sky is a mass of smoke produced by enormous chimneys that populate the steampunk landscape. “Since there is no sun in Chimney Town, how you make the lighting is important,” notes Hirota. “If someone needed to be lit then the smoke could be less dense in that area. Black smoke can hide certain things as well. Smoke was carefully placed behind the characters. I went shot by shot. That was detailed work.”