Watch GHOST IN THE SHELL Director Kenji Kamiyama's XI AVANT

Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Eden Of The East director Kenji Kamiyama has never been shy about embedding real life products into his animated work. If anything Kamiyama's method of fusing technology into his stories makes them prime territory to engage in a bit of creative product placement to pay the bills. Kamiyama is clearly aware of this as he has recently founded a company specifically to deal with this sort of thing: Product placement or, on a larger scale, product sponsored projects.

The first fruit of that move is Kamiyama's Xi Avant, a four part short film now streaming online in 2D on the official site and in 3D ahead of theatrical showings of the director's Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society feature film. The animation was funded by NTT Docomo as a promotional venture for their new Xi data service but other than the fact the phone the main character is using is a real world device this doesn't appear to have impacted Kamiyama's style at all. And I don't know about you but I figure forget the phone, I want me a tshirt with the logo above on it ... a signature Kamiyama move, that bit.

You can check out the trailer for Xi Avant below and the entire film here. And to those who will inevitably complain about anyone other than Mamoru Oshii being referred to as the director of Ghost In The Shell, well, Kamiyama has now directed far, far more material in that franchise than Oshii ever will. So deal with it.