by FilmInk Staff
Backed by a16z, Variant Fund, Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures, and Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media, Shibuya’s upcoming slate is directed by digital-native creators who are redefining storytelling
Shibuya, the crowdfunding storytelling platform reinventing how entertainment gets made, is officially launching Season One, a new collection of live-action and animated short films debuting today on Shibuya’s newly launched platform. Featuring talent including Archie Madekwe (Gran Turismo, Saltburn), Peyton Kennedy (Grey’s Anatomy, Everything Sucks!), Bradley Steven Perry (Good Luck Charlie), Nesta Cooper (Reality High), and Ximena Lamadrid (Who Killed Sara?), each short offers a fresh, standalone story, and an invitation to help shape what happens next.
Part streaming platform, part crowdfunding tool, Shibuya is introducing a new model where each short film serves as a pilot and viewers have the power to greenlight future episodes. After watching a short film, fans can choose to fund the next episode, giving them a direct role in deciding which stories move forward. The innovative model is designed to provide a new kind of entertainment experience, where fans aren’t just audiences, they are co-producers.
“We built Shibuya to disrupt the traditional studio system and put power back into the hands of creators and fans,” said Emily “pplpleasr” Yang, co-founder of Shibuya. “With the launch of Season One, we’re spotlighting bold, original work and inviting fans to decide what comes next.”
Shibuya first launched in 2022 with a $6.9 million seed round co-led by a16z and Variant Fund, with participation from Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures and celebrity investors including Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media and Joe Tsai’s Blue Pool Capital. The raise helped establish Shibuya’s foundation as a web3-native studio with a mission to build community-driven IP outside of traditional Hollywood models.
The company’s first original short, White Rabbit, is a sci-fi anime that follows Mirai, a girl unaware of her true nature as an AI. It invited fans to vote on story outcomes and fund future episodes. White Rabbit served as the proof of concept for Shibuya’s model, which raised $1.2M in just 20 minutes and cultivated a dedicated online community that continues to grow.
Each short in Season One is under 30 minutes and developed with digital-native creators and directors across genres, including Elle Mills (1.7M subscribers) and Ben Christensen (DangerBean_55), offering a showcase of new voices, experimental formats, and untapped stories, all free from studio gatekeeping. By enabling creator ownership and fan involvement at every stage, Shibuya’s model aims to radically reshape how entertainment is funded, distributed, and sustained.
Season One’s five shorts include:
- Ultrasound by Julian Lamadrid starring Ximena Lamadrid: A high-tension drama mini series that follows a punk rock band, with each episode being shot in one continuous take.
- Spiritual 100 by Jordan Cooper starring Archie Madekwe and Nesta Cooper: A satirical anime mini series where 100 candidates compete on a reality game show to see who is the most spiritual.
- Diaboli by Shaddy Safadi: A hyper-realistic animated mini series which takes place in medieval times and follows a woman looking for her son while a demon possesses and takes over lost souls of the town.
- Don’t Forget About Me by Elle Mills: A coming-of-age, feel-good short about two teen siblings meeting the grown-up, jaded version of their favorite childhood TV character.
- The Funny Thing About Losing Socks by Ben Christensen: A higher fidelity version of Ben’s largely popular TikTok skit, an Interstellar-style story of two friends who travel to another dimension to find the socks that get lost in the dryer, then discover that only one of them can return.
About Shibuya
Shibuya is a next-generation storytelling platform empowering fans to directly support creators. By blending streaming with crowdfunding, Shibuya allows original stories to be funded, greenlit, and scaled, all outside the traditional Hollywood system. Shibuya is co-founded by renowned digital artist Emily “pplpleasr” Yang.
