Interest
Disney to Exhibit at Comiket for the First Time with Ender's Game
posted on by Bamboo Dong
For the first time ever, Walt Disney Studios Japan will be exhibiting at Comic Market 85, which will be held from December 29 to 31 at Tokyo Big Sight. Only they won't be there promoting any new animated projects—they'll be there to promote the upcoming Ender's Game movie adaptation of Orson Scott Card's novel, which opens in Japan on January 18, 2014. While Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate are distributing the film in North America, Disney is handling distribution in Japan.
What makes this announcement particularly interesting is that Disney Japan has previously not had a presence at Comic Market (or Comiket for short), a bi-annual doujinshi fair held at Tokyo Big Sight in Tokyo that draws 590,000 attendees every event.
According to Ender's Game film marketing producer Yuri Kusataro, "When I read [Ender's Game], I felt the portrayal of the set-up and the main character were very sympathetic and appealing, like something from an anime. Ender's Game portrays people in a deep way, just like in anime. Hollywood's live action has finally caught up."
Incidentally, at the most recent Comic Market 84, several manga-style illustrations by illustrator and singer Aki Akane (Facebook, Pixiv, Youtube) of the characters from Ender's Game were on display in West Hall, the section of Comiket where studios and film distributors promote their latest projects. The illustrations were displayed along with pamphlets bearing Summit Entertainment's copyright, drawing the conclusion that they were being used as official promotional material for the movie.
Aki Akane's illustration of Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is also being used by book publisher Hayakawa for their November reprint of Orson Scott Card's novel, with a new translation by Kazue Tanaka. The new edition will be published in two parts, with a standard cover, a Aki Akane illustration cover, or a movie-version cover.
Ender's Game is being distributed in the United States by Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate, and will open in North American on November 1.
[Source: Oricon]
