[5] When still a young boy, Arias often watched movies in the theater with his parents and borrowed 16mm prints from a local public library for screening at home; it was at this stage in his life that he developed his passion for cinema.

Michael Arias' early filmmaking career is marked by stints in both the U.S. and Japan, working in VFX, CG production and software development, and as a producer of animated films.

[3] Michael Arias began his film career in 1987 at nascent visual effects powerhouse Dream Quest Images (DQ),[7] first as an unpaid intern and then as a full-time employee and IATSE member.

The bulk of his time at DQ was spent as a camera assistant on the motion control stages, working on such effects-heavy Hollywood films as The Abyss, Total Recall, and Fat Man and Little Boy.

Then, after less than a year at Imagica, he was invited by up-and-coming game producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi to join a newly formed computer graphics unit at Sega Enterprises Amusement Research and Development facility.

[10] Encouraged by colleagues, Arias quickly immersed himself in the Mental Ray rendering API and thereafter began experimenting with techniques for simulating traditional animation imagery using computer graphics tools.

[11] This research led to Arias' developing and eventually patenting Softimage's Toon Shaders, rendering software for facilitating integration of computer graphics imagery with cel animation.

Tekkonkinkreet (Tekkon) is a metaphysical coming-of-age story concerning two orphans, Black (クロ, Kuro) and White (シロ, Shiro) and their struggle to survive in a pan-Asian metropolis, Treasure Town (宝町, Takara-machi), beset by evil.

"[10] Arias worked closely with the Wachowskis to refine the project's unique specifications: though initially conceived of as a television series, The Animatrix evolved into a collection of nine non-episodic animated shorts, each six to ten minutes long.

To helm the films, Arias and his partners assembled a "dream team" of anime luminaries that included Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Kōji Morimoto, Shinichiro Watanabe, and Mahiro Maeda.

[2] New York Times critic Manohla Dargis, in her review of Tekkonkinkreet, describes Treasure Town as "a surreal explosion of skewed angles, leaning towers, hanging wires, narrow alleys and gaudily cute flourishes that bring to mind a yakuza cityscape by way of a Hello Kitty theme park.

[32] Tekkon was further lauded, not only for Arias' innovative use of computer graphics techniques and seamless integration of digital and traditional animation, but also for the film's handmade, documentary-style approach to storytelling.

[33] After an early Tekkon screening at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, filmjourney.org editor Doug Cummings elaborated: Arias’ angles and compositions are uniformally [sic] inventive and striking, and most impressively, he incorporates a bevy of live action camera techniques: handheld framing, long tracking shots through corridors, rack focusing and shifting depths of field–that generate considerable immediacy and environmental realism (despite the obvious hand-drawn artifice).

"[38] In defense of Weintraub's screenplay, Arias explained to readers of AniPages Daily, "He really got it right – the story of Treasure Town, the sense of doom, the action in Kiddie Kastle all fit together very seamlessly.

Other contributors to Arias' Ani*Kuri short include colorist Miyuki Itō, CG director Takuma Sakamoto, British electronic music composers Plaid, and Sound designer Mitch Osias, all Tekkonkinkreet alumni.

Arias' adaptation features J-Pop heartthrob Tomoya Nagase and ingenue Mayuko Fukuda as unlikely comrades who flee the hospital where they first meet, and embark on a road-trip to reach the ocean and watch the sun set there in the short time they have left.

[51][52] Screen International correspondent Jason Gray concludes, "I think younger audiences will find the tragedy of Heaven´s Door palpable.... For someone like me who devoured American cinema of the early 70s, tearing up at films like Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, I might not be the best judge.

"[51] On June 23, 2009, Japanese pay-per-view broadcaster WOWOW announced the upcoming on-air premiere of Arias' surreal short film Hope, featuring popular actress Juri Ueno as a struggling animator trapped overnight in an elevator.

[53][54] Hope was penned by Arisa Kaneko,[55] shot by Heaven's Door DP Takashi Komatsu, J.S.C., and features original score by Plaid and sound design by Mitch Osias.

On November 27, 2014, Japanese broadcaster Fuji Television made public Arias' co-directing (with Takashi Nakamura) the feature-film adaptation of the late Project Itoh's dystopian sci-fi novel Harmony, recipient of a Philip K. Dick Award Special Citation in 2010.