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Kaze no Yō ni Anime Film's Trailer Previews Theme Song

The official website of the anime film adaptation of Tetsuya Chiba's (Ashita no Joe, Teppei) Kaze no Yō ni (Like the Wind) one-shot manga began streaming a trailer for the film on Wednesday. The trailer previews the film's theme song "Koi Kaze" (Love Wind) by Kana Matsumoto.

Text: The dazzling four seasons in Japan
Text: Nature shows its beautiful self once in a while
Text: We deliver the children of Japan's dignified customs...
Text: And samurai-like mindset...
Text: To children across the world.
Logo: Kaze no Yō ni

Additionally, the website revealed that Chiba will appear at a special talk event commemorating the film in Tokyo in May. Supporters who donated at least 20,000 yen (about US$185) to the film's Fundiy crowdfunding campaign will receive priority invitations to the event.

Testuya launched the crowdfunding campaign for the film on February 22. The project met its goal of 2 million yen (about US$17,725) in March and will continue to run until April 22. As of press time, the project has earned 2,979,000 yen (about US$27,595).

The film is planned to open at the Tollywood "short movie theater" in Tokyo in May "or later," and it will be approximately 40 minutes long.

Chiba published the "Kaze no Yō ni" one-shot in Kodansha's Shoujo Friend magazine in 1969. The manga centers around Sanpei, a boy beekeeper and the sole survivor of an accident that killed his entire family. Sanpei meets Chiyo, a girl who gets stung by a bee, and starts a new life in her village. Eventually, Sanpei cultivates the land that the villagers had abandoned, and then disappears. In the land now filled with flowers, Chiyo waits, believing Sanpei will return.

The announced cast includes:

• Masako Nozawa as Sanpei
• Minami Fukuhara as Chiyo
• Hana Takeda as Kamekichi
• Asako as Sabu
• Aine Shiono as Kunio
• Megu Ashiro as Shige
• Yuri Noguchi as Sachi
• Junpei Asashina as Sensei
• Reiko Suzuki as Osen
• Hiroki Maeda as Tora
• Toshiya Chiba as Masakichi
• Takayuki Yoshi as Jisuke
• Masaaki Yano as Mosaku
• Megumi Miyatsu as Tsune
• Keisuke Hamaoka as Villager A
• Norio Takaku as Sanpei's Father
• Shiori Inoue as Otome
• Michiyo Yanagisawa as Narrator

Toshiyuki Honda is directing the film at Ekura Animal, and is also in charge of storyboards and planning. Chie Hidono is writing the script, Masatsune Noguchi is the animation director, and Kou Nakagawa is composing the music.

Rewards for backers include setting materials for the anime, a DVD copy of the film, raw key frames, and replica key frames signed by Tetsuya Chiba.

Thanks to Rachel S. for the news tip.