Halo anime revealed

Seven shorts overseen by Halo division, 343 Industries.

Microsoft is to unveil a series of seven shorts set in the Halo universe, all created in Japanese anime style, reports the LA Times.

The new venture is being overseen by Microsoft's Halo division, confirmed as 343 Industries, with five production houses working on the films: Bones, Casio Entertainment, Production I.G., Studio4 C, and Toei Animation. Shinji Aramaki, director of Appleseed and Appleseed Ex Machina, will oversee the project.

The films will be previewed on Xbox LIVE this autumn and will find their way to DVD, Blu-ray and other digital platforms with the help of Warner Bros. in early 2010.

In addition to overseeing all seven shorts, Aramaki is directing his own that tells the history of the Spartans.

"I liked that this would be an anthology of human stories told from different characters' perspectives," explained Aramaki.

According to 343 Industries creative director Frank O'Connor, Studio4 C's short is tentatively titled Origins and is a two parter that is around 30 minutes in length. It tells the entire 100,000 year history of the Halo universe. Toei's will be the only short set outside of the franchise's official canon and will make fun at some of the game's characters.

Each short will also feature its own unique style

"It's a wildly varied genre, but anime creators do things with weapons and vehicle and technology nobody else does and that marries very well with Halo," explained O'Connor. "It's amazing to see some of the new stuff they're introducing and how neatly it maps to the visual aesthetics in the Halo universe."

Microsoft is expected to show a trailer for Halo Legends at Comic-Con later today.