Yōhei Kameyama
Description
Yōhei Kameyama is a Japanese 3DCG animation director, writer, and producer, born on August 16, 1996. He is best known as the sole creator of the animated short Milky Highway and its sequel series, Milky Subway: The Galactic Limited Express (also known as Ginga Tokkyū Milky☆Subway Kakueki Teisha Gekijō Iki).
Kameyama first gained public attention in February 2022 with the release of Milky Highway, a four-minute short film he created as his graduation project while studying at Kadokawa's Vantan Game Academy. He wrote, directed, animated, edited, and produced the entire short independently, using Blender software which he taught himself. The video became a viral success on YouTube, accumulating over eight million views and attracting an international audience.
Following the success of Milky Highway, Kameyama spent over two years developing a sequel. The result was Milky Subway: The Galactic Limited Express, a twelve-episode short-form anime series that premiered on July 3, 2025. The series aired on Tokyo MX television while simultaneously streaming on YouTube, with dubbed versions made available in ten different languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Chinese, Thai, Indonesian, French, Hindi, and Russian. The series concluded on September 18, 2025, with a total runtime of approximately thirty-six minutes across all episodes.
In a manner consistent with his debut work, Kameyama handled nearly every aspect of the sequel's production himself. His official credits for Milky Subway: The Galactic Limited Express include director, scriptwriter, producer, character designer, modeler, animator, editor, sound director, and original creator. The series uses the 1977 song Gingakei made Tonde Ike by the group Candies as its theme music.
The story of both works follows two young women, the genetically enhanced super human Chiharu Kujo and her cyborg childhood friend Makina Kurusu, who are arrested for violating space traffic laws and sentenced to community service aboard an interstellar train called the Milky Subway. The series has been described as a comedy with science fiction elements, noted for its fast-paced dialogue, expressive character animation, and distinct visual aesthetic inspired by 1980s color palettes.
A theatrical edit of the series, titled Milky Subway: The Galactic Limited Express: Local Train to the Theater, was released in Japanese cinemas on February 6, 2026. This version re-edited the twelve episodes into a film format with additional new content, and featured new cast members Kenshō Ono and Robert Waterman.
Kameyama's work is significant within the anime industry as an example of a single creator producing a broadcast-quality animated series largely without a traditional studio production structure. His approach of writing, directing, animating, and distributing his work independently through YouTube while also securing television broadcast represents an emerging model for creator-driven animation production.
Kameyama first gained public attention in February 2022 with the release of Milky Highway, a four-minute short film he created as his graduation project while studying at Kadokawa's Vantan Game Academy. He wrote, directed, animated, edited, and produced the entire short independently, using Blender software which he taught himself. The video became a viral success on YouTube, accumulating over eight million views and attracting an international audience.
Following the success of Milky Highway, Kameyama spent over two years developing a sequel. The result was Milky Subway: The Galactic Limited Express, a twelve-episode short-form anime series that premiered on July 3, 2025. The series aired on Tokyo MX television while simultaneously streaming on YouTube, with dubbed versions made available in ten different languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Chinese, Thai, Indonesian, French, Hindi, and Russian. The series concluded on September 18, 2025, with a total runtime of approximately thirty-six minutes across all episodes.
In a manner consistent with his debut work, Kameyama handled nearly every aspect of the sequel's production himself. His official credits for Milky Subway: The Galactic Limited Express include director, scriptwriter, producer, character designer, modeler, animator, editor, sound director, and original creator. The series uses the 1977 song Gingakei made Tonde Ike by the group Candies as its theme music.
The story of both works follows two young women, the genetically enhanced super human Chiharu Kujo and her cyborg childhood friend Makina Kurusu, who are arrested for violating space traffic laws and sentenced to community service aboard an interstellar train called the Milky Subway. The series has been described as a comedy with science fiction elements, noted for its fast-paced dialogue, expressive character animation, and distinct visual aesthetic inspired by 1980s color palettes.
A theatrical edit of the series, titled Milky Subway: The Galactic Limited Express: Local Train to the Theater, was released in Japanese cinemas on February 6, 2026. This version re-edited the twelve episodes into a film format with additional new content, and featured new cast members Kenshō Ono and Robert Waterman.
Kameyama's work is significant within the anime industry as an example of a single creator producing a broadcast-quality animated series largely without a traditional studio production structure. His approach of writing, directing, animating, and distributing his work independently through YouTube while also securing television broadcast represents an emerging model for creator-driven animation production.
Works
- Topics: Anime overview
- Topics: Anime overview