Following the release of "Samurai Champloo", Watanabe directed a short film called "Baby Blue" which was released on July 7, 2007 as a segment of the anthology film "Genius Party". In recent years, he has been active as a creative music producer, overseeing the 2004 film "Mind Game", 2008's "Michiko & Hatchin", and supervising the storyboards for episode 12 of "Tetsuwan Birdy: Decode". In 2012, he directed the anime series "Kids on the Slope" (Japanese title: "Sakamichi no Apollon"), a coming-of-age story about young jazz musicians, which premiered in April 2012 on Fuji TV's Noitamina block.