Eiko Ishiwata Shares Valiant Mirror Trailer on The Leanne Newton Show

Eiko Ishiwata’s emotional return to “Valiant Mirror” her shelved JRPG trailer debuts on Leanne Newton’s show after years of creative silence.

WINNPEG, MANITOBA, CANADA, July 4, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Japanese-Canadian artist and composer Eiko Ishiwata premiered the long-unreleased trailer for her animated game project Valiant Mirror on a recent episode of The Leanne Newton Show. The trailer, built around Eiko Ishiwata’s hand-painted gouache artwork, had been shelved since 2021 due to surrounding controversy and what she describes as an emotionally charged creative history.

“Yes, I kept it offline,” Ishiwata said during the broadcast. “I haven’t accessed the files since 2021. When I looked for it, I was quite emotional… I couldn’t really remember where I put it.”

The trailer was originally created for a Kickstarter campaign, but never released. “I put a lot of effort into it,” she explained. “I think I painted around 70 paintings in one year… and I only took like a day or two off for Christmas to try to meet the deadline.” The project was paused when parallels with a mainstream show emerged. “Then we discovered Mythic Quest… and also our best discretion [was] to cancel the Kickstarter until we [could] solve this.”

Valiant Mirror is a Japanese Role-Playing Game (JRPG) prototype with a retro cinematic style that plays more like an interactive animation than a conventional game, drawing comparisons to the 1983 arcade classic Dragon’s Lair. The animation is fully hand-painted using gouache on watercolor paper. “It’s one of the hardest mediums to use,” Ishiwata noted, explaining that it allowed for visual effects “in between watercolor and acrylic.” Her visual workflow included scanning, digitizing, and animating in Spine, a tool commonly used in video game production.

The trailer was co-created by Eiko Ishiwata and her longtime collaborator Brett Douglas McDowell. “Brett was the one directing it,” she said. “He did a lot of the camera movements and editing… I did the artwork, the animation, the music, and the sound design.” And the underscore was mastered by Greg Mindorff. The trailer blends Ishiwata’s hand-painted gouache artwork with cinematic visual effects, creating a distinct hybrid of retro Japanese technique and modern game prototyping.

After the trailer aired, Newton asked if she planned to complete the full game. Ishiwata hesitated but said yes, emotionally:

“It’s been a long time since I’ve actually thought of it… I want to finish it. During the heat of the conflict, I felt like I was done. I didn’t want to do it anymore… I was worried about people possibly plagiarizing it again.”

Ishiwata confirmed that the game’s core theme was self-defense against toxic behaviour:

“The whole reason we did this game is to teach gamers about toxic behaviours, like narcissistic behaviours, so young people… can learn how to properly defend themselves.”

The Valiant Mirror segment arrives amid growing cultural conversations about creative authorship and representation in media. In recent months, artists and commentators—including Leanne Newton, Kassidy O’Connell, Ashley Brianna Eve, In Frame with Mandy Magnan and many others—have explored questions of credit, visibility, and originality in creative industries. While the trailer makes no reference to any public controversy, its resurfacing has resonated with audiences engaged in these ongoing debates across gaming and entertainment.

The episode also included a retrospective of Ishiwata’s early art, and the animated debut of “Newton”.

The trailer for Valiant Mirror will be made available later this month on Eiko Ishiwata’s YouTube channel, accompanied by an artist statement.

Brett Douglas McDowell
Red River Rebellion Limitée
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Eiko Ishiwata Premieres Her Shelved JRPG Trailer Valiant Mirror on Leanne Newton’s Show