“Animation is the art of the invisible, it can reach where words fail. If even one person remembers their unconditional heart after watching, that is enough.”
Jake Ohama, Founder, RABBITWARREN
We live in an age of instant reels and restless scrolls, yet this story reminds us of a timeless truth: no matter your circumstances, the choice to create change always begins within you… This time, our cover star is none other than, RABBITWARREN, the creative- conscious, animation studio that has become the talk of the biz town. Apparently, it is a story that may live in your heart rent-free! The venture was founded by Jake Ohama to remind us that kindness, courage, and empathy are not relics of the past but the very pixels of our shared future. The future belongs to those who dare to lead with heart. We need more ventures like RABBITWARREN to show that empathy and love remain humanity’s greatest superpowers.
Unfolding the backstory
In the quiet hum of February 22, 2022, under the solemn sky of Hiroshima, a small group stood in reverent stillness. They weren’t politicians or priests; they were storytellers armed not with banners but with a belief that animation could awaken what war had nearly extinguished: the unconditional heart. That was the day RABBITWARREN was born, not merely as an animation studio but as a declaration to guide humanity towards the path of empathy and mindfulness. A manifesto drafted in the shadow of destruction and illuminated by compassion.
For Jake Ohama, Hiroshima wasn’t chosen for drama, it was chosen for memory. “Growing up in Japan, we were taught again and again about the folly of war,” he recalls. Each August 6th, the television filled with images of the Peace Memorial, the prayers, the bells. “We wanted to create something that transcends time, stories that would still whisper kindness 300 years from now.” That whisper has since grown into RABBITWARREN’s creative pulse, a blend of philosophy, quantum wonder, and artistry that sees storytelling as both medicine and mirror.
Jake and his team believed that humanity had reached a threshold moment, a cosmic shift of conscience. They marked that belief by launching what they call “The Unconditionable Project”, a blueprint for awakening the world’s dormant empathy. Its first seed was planted in Hiroshima; two days later, Russia invaded Ukraine. “It was as if the tides of fate were echoing what we sensed,” says Ohama. The timing was eerie. The message was kind of prophetic and the mission was indeed urgent…
RABBITWARREN’s work, inspired by six guiding principles of the Unconditionable Project, freedom, passion, time, consciousness, existence, and abundance, does not lecture or instruct. It invites. Each frame, each character, is a quiet rebellion against cynicism, an argument for gentleness. In their stories, villains are not monsters but mirrors. Heroes are flawed, luminous, and achingly human. And through every pixel runs a subtle hum, one that says: you belong, even when you are broken. “Animation is the art of the invisible,” Ohama says softly. “It can reach where words fail, to heal, to remind, to rekindle.”
Animation as Emotional Alchemy
In a digital age of infinite noise, RABBITWARREN’s philosophy feels almost radical. Their films are not about speed or spectacle but about sensation, the slow burn of meaning. For Jake, animation is not escapism but emotional alchemy, a medium that allows pain to be transmuted into empathy, fear into understanding. “Some truths are too raw to capture in live-action,” he explains. “Animation allows us to soften reality just enough so we can hold it. We can inspire shifts in perceptions in subtle ways.”
Through luminous metaphors and flowing visual language, RABBITWARREN’s work draws viewers into contemplation rather than distraction. Their stories dwell in the liminal, between heartbeats, between chaos and calm. In one sequence, a child forgives a shadow of his own making; in another, a creature of light teaches an enemy how to breathe again. Every stroke carries intention, every silence a purpose. If Pixar gave the world its first tear, RABBITWARREN seems intent on giving it its first collective exhale.
Crafting the Unconditional
Inside RABBITWARREN’s creative process, questions replace formulas. The team begins each project by asking, “What universal truth does this story want to illuminate?” From there, characters are born, not to entertain but to embody. Their visual design evokes warmth and movement, aligning with their principle of “flow.” Sound is treated as the soul, the rhythm of empathy. Music is composed not to direct emotion but to invite it. And through it all, the studio practices what it preaches: neutrality. No moral sermons. No forced optimism. Instead, the humility of exploration. “We want viewers to feel free to think, to feel, to disagree,” asserts Jake. “Because only then can compassion be real.”
Perhaps their most paradoxical creative belief is this: to make an audience feel, one must let go of wanting them to feel. That, as per Jake, is the essence of unconditional storytelling.
“The greatest power of storytelling,” he muses, “is unleashed only when we stop expecting something in return.”
The Studio as a Soul Movement
RABBITWARREN doesn’t behave like a studio chasing commercial success. It behaves like a meditation disguised as a production house. Its true currency isn’t revenue or reach but resonance, the kind that lingers quietly in a viewer’s chest long after the credits fade. If viewers start to introspect after watching the content, the mission is simply served. The team measures success not by analytics but by the subtle shifts in human thought. “If even one person remembers their unconditional heart after watching…That is enough.” This humility anchors RABBITWARREN in a world of metrics and noise. Their approach feels less like marketing and more like prayer, gentle, persistent, transformative.
Technology, Quantum Wonder, and the Digital Paradox
Unlike many who see digitalization as disconnection, James views it differently. “It’s not that technology separates us, it’s that it connects us too much,” he laughs. “Our minds are flooded; our spirits, overwhelmed.” To him, the solution isn’t withdrawal but balance. The digital revolution, he believes, can still serve consciousness, if guided by intention of uniting people rather than dividing them for petty human profits! Advances in quantum physics affirm what RABBITWARREN has always intuited: that we are all made of one energy, one existence. Their stories echo that truth in poetic form, using animation as a translator of the infinite.
Every episode becomes a soft rebellion against division, a cinematic bridge between logic and love. Each scene asks us to remember that Earth itself is a shared vessel, a fragile spaceship orbiting quietly through the unknown.
The Wounds That Became Wisdom
In 1995, while studying at the University of Southern California, Jake witnessed horror as Japan’s HanshinAwaji Earthquake reduced Kobe to rubble. The devastation became his first lesson in how to make efforts towards ensuring global empathy. Determined to help, he organized a fundraiser that united 2,000 students in Los Angeles, raising over $10,000 for the victims. That act of compassion came full circle years later when a Kobe official remembered his effort and invited him to create The Kobe Collection, a fashion event that would later evolve into one of Japan’s most iconic cultural festivals.
Life, it seems, has always been whispering to Jake Ohama about cycles of destruction, renewal, and creation. RABBITWARREN is simply the latest chapter in that unfolding conversation. He clearly believes that human life is to serve other people in best “Your hardships,” he reflects, “are the hints the universe gives you for future creativity.”
Mindful Storytelling to tap into the Human Pulse
At its core, RABBITWARREN’s storytelling philosophy is not about escapism but reconnection, to the planet, to each other, to our shared fragility. The studio’s ethos could easily read as a manifesto for mindful media in a post-truth age.
RABBITWARREN’s characters stumble, fail, forgive, and grow, not to be perfect, but to remind us that imperfection is divine. Their villains, too, are treated with tenderness; they represent the fractured parts of ourselves we fear to face. Jake insists that mindful storytelling begins not in art but in awareness. “We listen to the breath of the universe,” he says. “We translate it into a story that can connect people across the globe.”
Beyond Entertainment towards a conscious planet
RABBITWARREN’s mission transcends digital screens. Its ambition is audacious yet humble, to leave behind a body of work that will still make sense a century from now, when today’s platforms have crumbled into digital dust. They imagine a world where future children grow up watching stories that make them gentler, not just smarter. Where empathy becomes instinct, not ideology. Their dream is simple: a world where humanity remembers its original programming, the unconditional heart.
The Flow Forward
As the conversation with Jake Ohama winds down, his words settle like soft rain. “Stay calm when life shakes you,” he says. “Go with the flow. Your failures carry the hints of your future.” RABBITWARREN’s journey is just beginning, 2 or 3 percent into its vision, as he puts it. Yet its voice already feels timeless. In an era obsessed with speed, it offers slowness. Amid noise, it offers nuance. Amid cynicism, sincerity. And perhaps that is RABBITWARREN’s quiet rebellion, reminding us that in a galaxy spinning with data and distraction, the most revolutionary act left is to feel. “Your struggles and failures hold the greatest hints for your success.”
Read more: Top Business Magazine
