Michiru (ミチル): ISEKAI ZERO's Anime Short Film Set in Kuching
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Watch the Michiru trailers
There are two trailers. The first (August 2026) introduces the film and its Kuching setting. The second (September 2026) was cut for the cinema premiere.
Trailer 1
Not Tokyo. Not Yokohama. This time, the anime unfolds in Kuching.
Trailer 2 (cinema premiere)
Growing up is quiet. It happens between the lines, in the spaces no one else sees.
Prefer vertical? Both trailers are on YouTube Shorts (trailer 1, trailer 2) and on Instagram (trailer 1, trailer 2).
Michiru at a glance
| Michiru (ミチル) | Details |
|---|---|
| Title | Michiru (ミチル) |
| Format | Animated short film, 30 minutes |
| Genre | Coming-of-age, school life, slice of life |
| Setting | Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia |
| Made by | The ISEKAI ZERO team (ARX MEDIA, Kuching), 100% original |
| Production | AI-animated, roughly six months from script to finished film |
| Cinema premiere | 12 September 2026, GSC The Spring (Hall 5), Kuching, free screening (tickets fully redeemed) |
| Worldwide release | 16 September 2026 on the ISEKAI ZERO YouTube channel |
| Soundtrack | 3 original tracks by kheelstrife (Michiru OST) |
The story
Growing up is quiet. It happens between the lines, in the spaces no one else sees. Michiru is a story about being seen. Michiru found herself in this city, and she was never the same after. This is Kuching. This is a girl growing up.
We are keeping the plot itself for the screen. What we can say: it is a high-school story, it is wholesome, and if you have ever sat in a library corner seat waiting for someone to notice you, it will land.
Every frame is Kuching
Most anime you know lives in Tokyo, Yokohama or a fictional Japanese town. Michiru takes the same visual language and puts it in the city our team grew up in:
- The old streets, shophouses in an afternoon lull.
- The markets, crowds and colour.
- The riverfront and the lake, gold at dusk.
- The public library, and that one corner seat.
- The city festival, the busiest night of the year.
If you are from Kuching you will recognise the streets you walked to school on. If you are not, this is probably the first time you will see Borneo drawn like this.
How a 30-minute anime was made in Kuching
Michiru was produced by the small team behind ISEKAI ZERO in about six months, from scripting to the finished cut. The crew photographed real locations around Kuching, wrote the storyline and shot list, then used AI animation tools with those photographs as references, re-prompting and redrawing shot by shot until each scene matched the place it was based on. Every character, scene and line is original.
The soundtrack is original too: three tracks by kheelstrife, 透明な僕 (Transparent), あたたかい光 (Warm Light) and 灯り (The Light You Left On), which you can listen to on the Michiru OST page.
Local press has described it as the first film of its kind out of Malaysia. Kuching South City Council (MBKS) mayor Dato Wee Hong Seng called the cinema screening the film's world premiere ahead of its global YouTube release.
Where and when to watch Michiru
Cinema premiere, Kuching: Saturday 12 September 2026. A free special screening at GSC The Spring, Hall 5, from 2pm to 4pm, in two sessions (2pm and 3pm), 550 seats in total. Tickets are free and were redeemed online at paakuu.com/events/6a9f5f6cc10726de4f705504. All 550 free tickets were fully redeemed within 24 hours, so no new tickets are available. If you redeemed one, collect it from 10am on the day at the ISEKAI ZERO booth (free seating, first come first served). Each session comes with its own collectible ticket design. The screening is part of Torabera 4.0 (Torabera ACG Fest, 11 to 13 September at The Spring), organised together with MBKS.
Worldwide, YouTube: 16 September 2026. The full film premieres on the ISEKAI ZERO YouTube channel. We will embed the full film on this page the day it goes live. For the latest news, screening updates and behind-the-scenes clips, follow ISEKAI ZERO on Facebook and Instagram.
Who is Michiru in ISEKAI ZERO?
If you play ISEKAI ZERO, you already know her. Michiru is the game's mascot and guide, a bright, kind girl who is always accompanied by Jiku, a mysterious little black cat with strong opinions about fish. Together they are the face of the app, and you will meet them all over it:
- Persona builder. Chat with Michiru and she builds your persona with you, live, true to the world of the story you are entering.
- Michiru Radio. The nonstop discovery mix in the music tab is hers.
- Twenty moods. Michiru has twenty hand-drawn emotion sprites in the app, from joy and curiosity to flustered and determined, so she reacts to what is happening on screen.
- The shop. Every top-up ends with Michiru thanking you and Jiku doing something unhelpful with your credits. (He once tried to trade the entire Arcane reserve for a single fish. The fish incident is behind us.)
Want to talk to her? You can chat with Michiru directly at michiru.isekai.world, no app install needed.
Michiru and Jiku's original character designs are by the artist Miin敏, who created them for the app (the film was produced separately by the ISEKAI ZERO team). The short film is the first time Michiru steps out of the app and into a story of her own, reimagined as a schoolgirl in Kuching.
You may also come across community-made characters called Michiru on ISEKAI ZERO. Those are fan creations by players, not the mascot, and that is exactly how the game is meant to work.
What is ISEKAI ZERO, and why did a game studio make a film?
ISEKAI ZERO is an AI roleplay game from Kuching. You get isekai'd into interactive anime stories: chat with characters who remember you, play branching storylines in visual novel mode, and create your own worlds for other players to live in. It runs in 17 languages, with a free option, daily Mana, and ad top-ups. Michiru is what happens when the same team points those tools at a 30-minute film instead of a chat window.
Our mission is to give creators a new canvas in the age of AI, where their stories, worlds and characters can live on through simulation. AI can generate content instantly, so we stand at a crossroads: let technology replace human creativity, or use it to amplify and immortalise it. ISEKAI ZERO chooses the latter. Every world on the platform was imagined by a real person, and when other people step into it, that person gets rewarded. Creativity should never go uncompensated.
Our vision is a future where simulation becomes the highest form of entertainment, not watched but lived. You do not read about a fantasy world, you walk its streets. Artists are not content creators, they are world architects. Infinite possibilities. Zero limit. You got isekai'd.
The proof: creators get paid
Words are cheap, so here is the mechanism and the numbers. Every creator on ISEKAI ZERO earns a 25% profit share on the AI responses generated inside their original storylines (paid Arcane play only, calculated daily, details in the creator earnings guide). The results are published on a public creator leaderboard, updated daily. August 2026, the last full month:
| August 2026 leaderboard | Result |
|---|---|
| #1 creator, total earnings | $1,523 (storylines + referrals + tips) |
| #2 and #3 creators | $543 and $293 |
| Top 10 creators combined | $3,871 paid out in one month |
| #1 single storyline | Eldenwynn Academy by puzzle_noir60, $140 |
| #2 single storyline | Another World Under Twin Moons by chestnut, $110 |
| Most tipped creator | $114.50 in player gifts |
| Most active player | 19,799 messages in the month |
Those are real players paying real creators for worlds those creators imagined, with AI doing the rendering. That is the whole thesis of ISEKAI ZERO in one table, and it is the same thesis behind Michiru: AI as the brush, humans holding it. Check the live board any day at isekaizero.ai/creation/leaderboard, and read the full mission and vision in our docs.
Looking for a different Michiru?
"Michiru" is a common Japanese given name, so there are several anime characters with it. If you were searching for one of these, they are not related to this film:
- Michiru Kagemori from BNA: Brand New Animal (Trigger, 2020), the tanuki girl.
- Michiru Matsushima from The Fruit of Grisaia.
- Michiru Hyoudou from Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend.
- Michiru Kaioh, Sailor Neptune from Sailor Moon.
Our Michiru is the ISEKAI ZERO mascot, and her film is Michiru (ミチル), 2026, set in Kuching.
Press
- DayakDaily: Free screening of AI-produced Kuching animation 'Michiru' at GSC The Spring Shopping Mall on Sept 12
- Sarawak Tribune: 'Michiru' brings Kuching to life through AI animation
- Utusan Sarawak: 'Michiru' angkat wajah Kuching menerusi lensa AI
Follow Michiru
Everything about the film, from the premiere to the YouTube release and any future screenings, is announced on our socials first:
- Facebook: facebook.com/isekaizeroworld
- Instagram: @isekai.zero
- YouTube: @isekaizeroworld
- Talk to Michiru: michiru.isekai.world
Michiru and Jiku are also waiting inside ISEKAI ZERO, the AI roleplay game where you get isekai'd into interactive anime stories written by players. Start free.
Try ISEKAI ZERO free
The ISEKAI ZERO teamWe build the AI roleplay & story game — storylines with memory, visuals, music, and a 25% creator profit share. These guides are how we explain the category honestly, including where competitors beat us.
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