W-01World dossier
Black Blossom Protocol is a cyber-geisha and rōnin universe in total black, with blood-red accents. The branding is bilingual JP/EN, carried by hanko seals and monograms, and the action plays out under rain. This world set the studio’s visual identity.
W-01 The world
Six words and nothing else
Kurohime was given six words, and no more: “I am the poetry of silence.” She holds a long katana level across her body, legs apart.
Six other characters were drawn the same way, each with a logo, a seal and a line of their own. Kage is the shadow, Shiyō is the master. Kage kneels in front of Shiyō and prays. Shiyō stays standing.
Studio note: every one of these characters existed on paper before anything moved. One sheet shows the kevlar umbrella closed, opening, then turning a bullet. The film came after: a shrine at night, rain on the roofs, a leap over a gate. The black and the red of this site were taken from those sheets.
StorySynopsis
This one gives away the whole plot, ending included.
The characters
Kurohime holds the centre of this world, and her whole creed is six words: “I am the poetry of silence.” Around her the cast divides into two lines. The rōnin line takes in Yasha, Kuren and Kage, and they carry the motto Shadow. Steel. Honor. The court line runs through Kagesakura and Kagezan. Shiyō is the master. Kage is the shadow, and he kneels to pray in front of a standing Shiyō. Every one of them exists on paper first, with a logo, a hanko seal, a tagline, a turnaround and a material palette. The umbrella is drawn as a mechanism, in three states: closed, deploying, turning a bullet. Nothing here is decoration. The kevlar parasol of a geisha is a ballistic shield, and the sheet says so before any film does.
The films
Kagezan is revealed first. The reveal opens on the title, moves to Kagezan seated in meditation with incense burning, and ends in a temple, in motion. Night Sanctuary follows and runs two and a quarter minutes: a shrine after dark, torii gates, rain on the roofs, the moon behind cloud. The choreography closes on a leap clean over a torii. Neither film explains the world, because the sheets already did. The films prove something harder: the same face holds across twenty-four shots. The black and the red of this entire site were lifted from these boards.
W-01.1The teaser
The Whole Cast In The Rain
The teaser runs thirty-nine seconds, and each name gets its own kanji card. Score and rain carry the whole thing, and nobody speaks.
Black Blossom Protocol — Teaser
Watch on Films →
W-01.2Cast
The Named Cast
Every character ships with a logo, a tagline and written lore. Seven of them now turn in the rain, in four-second reveals cut from the teaser.
Kurohime
“I am the poetry of silence.”
Yasha Rōnin
Ghost. Discipline. Destiny.
Kagesakura
Shadow cherry blossom.
Kuren Rōnin
The rōnin line, part II.
Kage Rōnin
“Shadow. Steel. Honor.”
Shiyō
The Master.
Kage
The Shadow.
W-01.3Craft
Spec-Grade Sheets
The sheets go past illustration and into production spec: turnarounds, materials, scale and function. Then the cast moved: one QHD short film, a teaser and eight reveals, all sound-designed, holding the world frame to frame. In 2026 I redrew the entire cast at native 4K, on 3584 × 4800 sheets. The originals went back in as weighted references, so the identity held while the resolution caught up.
| Turnarounds | Face / profile / back, per character |
|---|---|
| Materials | Palette spheres, per outfit and prop |
| Scale | Human reference figures on every sheet |
| Function | Deployment diagrams for the kevlar umbrella: closed / deploy / ballistic deflection |
| Identity | Logo, tagline and lore per character, hanko seals, bilingual JP/EN |
W-01.4Turnarounds
Four Views Per Character
Each character gets four views: front, back, side and an action pose. I generate them under a locked block, so the validated face returns as the identity reference, the costume description is repeated word for word, and only the camera moves.
W-01.5The Sheets
The Cast, Redrawn In 4K
Twenty-eight sheets came out at 3584 × 4800 native, with no upscale. The weak link was the 2024 originals, not the designs. I passed them back in as weighted references, and every character kept its identity at seventeen megapixels.
W-01.6Boards
The Boards
W-01.7Films
The World In Motion
The world holds one short film and one reveal, plus the making-of, which is written as a protocol log: monospace on black, one line at a time, including the card that owns what went wrong.
Black Blossom Protocol — Making Of
Kagezan — Reveal
It opens on the title, moves to seated meditation in incense smoke, then breaks into temple action. The reveal is built like a ritual.
Watch the film →Night Sanctuary
A shrine at night, under rain: torii gates, moonlight, rooftops. It closes on a leap over a torii, and the character holds from one cut to the next.
Watch the film →