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Mary and the Witch's Flower Film's Trailer Previews Sekai no Owari Theme Song

The official Facebook for Studio Ponoc and Hiromasa Yonebayashi's upcoming Mary and The Witch's Flower (Mary to Majo no Hana) anime film began streaming a third trailer on Friday, and announced that rock band SEKAI NO OWARI (live-action Attack on Titan, Princess Jellyfish) is performing the film's theme song "RAIN." Studio Ponoc's YouTube channel is streaming an English-subtitled version of the new trailer, which previews the song.

The film will open in Japan on July 8. Earlier English trailers have listed a 2017 release window.

Hana Sugisaki (When Marnie Was There, live-action Blade of the Immortal) will play the lead character Mary and Ryunosuke Kamiki (The Secret World of Arrietty's Sho, your name.'s Taki) will play Peter. The rest of the cast include (from left to right in the image below starting with the top row):

• Fumiyo Kohinata as Doctor Dee
• Yūki Amami as Madame Mumblechook
• Hikari Mitsushima as Red-haired Witch
• Eri Watanabe as Banks
• Shinobu Ōtake as Charlotte
• Jirō Satō as Flanagan

U.K.-based company Altitude Film Sales has acquired the worldwide rights to the film, and will release the film in the United Kingdom. Madman Entertainment will release the film in Australia and New Zealand.

Hiromasa Yonebayashi, who directed Studio Ghibli's Arrietty and When Marnie Was There, is directing Mary and The Witch's Flower, and is also penning the script for the film alongside Riko Sakaguchi, who wrote the screenplay for Isao Takahata's The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. Takatsugu Muramatsu (When Marnie Was There) is handling the music. Yoshiaki Nishimura is credited as producer. The staff page on the film's website further notes that many former staff from Studio Ghibli have joined Ponoc in the film's production.

The film is based on Mary Stewart's book The Little Broomstick. Studio Ponoc scouted locations in Shropshire, U.K., the setting of the original novel. Amazon's description of the original The Little Broomstick novel describes the story:

It is Tib the black cat who leads Mary to the strange flower in the woods. When she discovers a little broomstick shortly afterwards, she is astonished to feel it jump in to action. Before she can gather her wits, it is whisking her over the treetops, above the clouds, and in to the grounds of Endor College, where: 'All Examinations Coached for by A Competent Staff of Fully-Qualified Witches.' Here she discovers evidence of a terrible experiment in transformation - deformed and mutant animals imprisoned in cages. In the moment after her broomstick takes off, she realises that Tib has been captured. Returning to the College the following day, she manages to free the animals, but not before the Head of the college, Miss Mumblechook, and her colleague, Doctor Dee, have seen her. Mary manages to flee ...but the evil pair are in hot pursuit!

Nishimura founded Studio Ponoc on April 15, 2015. Nishimura named the studio after the Croatian word for "midnight," signifying the beginning of a new day. Nishimura left Ghibli at the end of 2014. Yonebayashi also left Ghibli at around the same time. Yonebayashi previously stated that he wanted his next film to be the "opposite" of When Marnie Was There.

[Via Hachima Kikō]