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I.G Posts Hand-Drawn Anime Film Giovanni's Island's Teaser

The animeanime.jp website began streaming the teaser trailer for Giovanni no Shima (Giovanni's Island), a new hand-drawn animated feature film from anime studio Production I.G, on Friday.

The story follows two boys, big brother Junpei and little brother Hirota, who live on a once peaceful northern island between Japan and the Soviet Union with their parents. In 1945, first love and tragedy entered their lives. The story depicts their blossoming love for a Russian girl, the chaos and fear from an army occupation, and the bonds of family.

Production I.G describes more of the story:

In the aftermath of the most devastating conflict mankind had ever experienced, the tiny island of Shikotan became part of the Sakhalin Oblast... and on the unhealed border of this remote corner of the world, friendship among children from two different countries timidly blossomed, striving to overcome language barriers and the waves of history. Inspired by true events.

On August 15th, they told us we had lost the war.

At that time, we did not really understand.

Then one day, everything changed.

Many soldiers, wearing uniforms we had never seen before, arrived on the island.

That was the day I met Tanya.

Mizuho Nishikubo (Musashi: The Dream of the Last Samurai, Video Girl Ai) is directing the film from a screenplay by Shigemichi Sugita (From the Northern Lands) and Yoshiki Sakurai (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Blood+). The film is being presented by the Japan Association of Music Enterprises (JAME) in order to celebrate the organization's 50th anniversary. Warner Entertainment Japan will open the movie in Japanese theaters in early spring 2014, while Production I.G will be handling international release of the film worldwide.

The film will open in Japan on February 22.