General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

The Empire of Corpses (屍者の帝国)

The Empire of Corpses (屍者の帝国, Shisha no Teikoku) is a 2015 Japanese animated science fiction film directed by Ryutarō Makihara and produced by WIT STUDIO, based on the novel of the same name by Project Itoh (Keikaku Itō) and Tō Enjō.¹ It was released in Japanese theaters on October 2, 2015, distributed by Toho's image business division, with a running time of 120 minutes.² The film is the first of three theatrical anime adaptations of Itō's fiction released under the banner "Project Itoh".³

Key fact	Detail
Release	October 2, 2015 (Japan), 120 minutes, distributed by Toho Eizō Jigyōbu²
Director / studio	Ryutarō Makihara (director of Hal); animation by WIT STUDIO¹
Source novel	Unfinished draft by Keikaku Itō, who died in 2009 at age 34, completed by Tō Enjō¹
Novel honors	Japan SF Grand Prize special award and Seiun Award⁴
Project Itoh	First film of the Noitamina Movie project adapting three Itō works³
Theme song	"Door" by EGOIST (Sony Music Records)¹
Australian rating	MA 15+, "strong supernatural themes and violence", 126 minutes⁵

Spoilers

Setting and plot

The story is set in late 19th-century London, where the corpse reanimation technology invented a century earlier by Victor Frankenstein has been put to practical use and spread worldwide. Reanimated corpses, called "shisha", do not speak and move only on command, and they have become an indispensable labor force.²

John H. Watson, a gifted medical student at the University of London, is recruited into Walshingham (Walsingham), a secret intelligence organ of the British government.⁶ His illegal reanimation of his close friend Friday, carried out to honor a promise made before Friday's death, is what brought him to the agency's attention.¹⁰ Watson is ordered to find the lost "Notes of Victor", the writings said to contain the ultimate technique behind The One, the original corpse created by Frankenstein, the only shisha ever to possess will and speech.¹

The first clue lies deep in Afghanistan, where Alexei Karamazov, a Russian Imperial Army chaplain celebrated as a genius corpse engineer, has vanished after rebelling at the head of an armed force of new-type corpses, reportedly building a "new kingdom" there.¹⁰ Accompanied by Friday, who records all of Watson's words and actions, Watson sets out on the journey.¹ The cast of characters also includes Captain Frederick Burnaby, assigned as Watson's guide and watcher; Nikolai Krasotkin, a young officer of Russia's Third Section; Hadaly Lilith, a mysterious woman claiming to be secretary to former US president Ulysses Grant; and M, the commander of the Walsingham agency, who plays Britain and Russia's corpse-technology "Great Game" through Watson.¹⁰

Origin of the story

The source novel began as the third original long-form project of the science fiction writer Keikaku Itō, known internationally as Project Itoh. Itō fell ill and died in 2009, two years after his major debut, leaving only about 30 manuscript pages of a prologue.⁶ His friend and fellow debut-generation writer Tō Enjō, winner of the Akutagawa Prize for The Domekano Butterfly (道化師の蝶), took over the manuscript with the family's consent and completed the novel, which was published as a co-work of the two authors in 2012.⁷ The book received the Japan SF Grand Prize special award and the Seiun Award.⁴

The film adaptation was announced by IG Port in December 2014 as one work of "Project Itoh", the second theatrical film project produced under Fuji Television's Noitamina brand, with Makihara as director and redjuice (of Guilty Crown) as original character designer.⁸ Chief producer Kōji Yamamoto of Twin Engine said the project deliberately opened with this completed-by-another-writer work, treating the completion of the novel itself as an act of carrying Itō's stories forward.⁹

Production and cast

WIT STUDIO, then known for the Attack on Titan television series, handled the animation.⁶ Takaaki Chiba designed the characters from redjuice's originals and served as chief animation director with Hirotaka Katō; the staff also included art director Yūsuke Takeda, 3D director Emiko Nishida, cinematographer Hiromachi Nakada, editor Aya Hida, sound director Shōji Hata, and composer Yoshihiro Ike.¹¹

The voice cast pairs the main characters as follows:¹²

John H. Watson: Yoshimasa Hosoya
Friday: Ayumu Murase
Frederick Burnaby: Taitei Kusunoki
Alexei Karamazov: Shinichirō Miki
Nikolai Krasotkin: Daiki Yamashita
Hadaly Lilith: Kana Hanazawa
M: Akio Ōtsuka
The One: Takayuki Sugō

The theme song "Door" was performed by EGOIST.¹²

Reception

Japanese reviewer Hibiki Kurei praised the film's world-building, describing a spy action that moves from Afghanistan to Japan and the United States, and noted that the 120-minute running time is packed to the post-credits bonus scene.⁹ The same review observed that while Enjō's novel became a story about language, the film stands as a separate, action-oriented version of the same premise.⁹ On Rotten Tomatoes the film carries a Tomatometer of 46% with no published critic consensus, against an audience Popcornmeter score based on more than 100 ratings; audience reviewers there singled out the animation and the "corpse engineering" concept while some found the ending rushed.¹³ Filmarks users gave it 3.4 out of 5 across 7,118 reviews, with recurring praise for its steampunk visuals and its treatment of the soul as a theme.¹⁴

In Australia the film was classified MA 15+ on July 5, 2016 for sale or hire on DVD, with the consumer advice "strong supernatural themes and violence"; the classified version runs 126 minutes, and the release carried the alternative title "Project Itoh: The Empire of Corpses".⁵ A Japanese Film Festival program described it as the first film in an anime trilogy based on the award-winning novels of the late author.¹⁵

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026