News
Nintama, GeGeGe no Nyōbō Film Footage Streamed
posted on by Egan Loo
The movie news site Cinema Today has begun streaming the trailer for the Gekijō-ban Anime Nintama Rantaro Ninjutsu Gakuen Zenin Shutsudō! no Dan film via its YouTube channel on Thursday. The feature-length anime is based on the the ninja comedy television anime Nintama Rantaro and it will open next spring — before next summer's live-action film remake that Takashi Miike (Yatterman, Crows Zero) is directing. The original story comes from Soubee Amako's Rakudai Ninja Rantarō ninja gag manga (Asahi Comics) about the adventures of Rantarō and other ninja apprentices at an elite ninjutsu academy. The story is set in Japan during the tumultuous Sengoku Jidai (Era of the Warring States). As first-graders, Rantarō and his ninja-in-training friends are called "Nintama" — a contraction of the words "ninja" and "tamago" ("egg").
Cinema Today is also streaming four minutes of footage from the film adaptation of the GeGeGe no Nyōbō (Spooky Wife) essay book. Nunoe Mura, the wife of GeGeGe no Kitarō horror manga author Shigeru Mizuki, published the original 2008 book about their years together. Mizuki, whose real name is Shigeru Mura, was a veteran who lost his left arm in World War II. Five days after meeting for the first time in an omiai (traditional Japanese ceremony for betrothal) in 1961, 39-year-old Shigeru and 29-year-old Nunoe were married.
Even though the film is mostly live-action, the streaming footage features several scenes of intricate pen-and-paper animation. In particular, the first sequence shows the secret origins of Kitaro's eyeball father, Medama Oyaji.
Actor and screenwriter Takuji Suzuki is directing the film with Kazue Fukiishi and Kankurō Kudō replacing the television adaptation's Nao Matsushita and Osamu Mukai as the married couple. The film will open in Japan on November 20.
Source: Cinema Today (link 2)
