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HIDIVE to Stream Saku Sakamoto's Aragne: Sign of Vermilion Film
posted on by Alex Mateo
HIDIVE announced on Friday that it will begin streaming Saku Sakamoto's Aragne: Sign of Vermilion (Aragne no Mushikago) horror anime film on March 24 at 1:00 p.m. EDT in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Latin America, and Scandinavian countries.
The Fantasia Festival in Montreal, Canada screened the film's world premiere in July 2018.
Fantasia Festival describes Aragne: Sign of Vermilion:
Life could be better for shy, anxious university student Rin. The apartment she has rented is hardly the sunny palace the rental listings suggested. The housing complex is rundown, grim and haunted by troubled souls lurking in dark corners. Ghastly crimes are occurring in the vicinity. And a grinning stranger makes his unsettling presence known. Beyond all this, Rin is coming to realize that something even more sinister is manifesting itself, something at the cursed crossroads of mythology, monstrosity and medical science. Determined to find out more, Rin visits the library, where she meets a sympathetic young staffer. But what she learns does not begin to put her mind at ease.
Sakamoto directed the film based on his original concept and script. He also personally produced the animation and music for the film. Few anime productions of more than 60 minutes have been produced by one person in the past. Film director and author Osamu Fukutani supervised production.
Kana Hanazawa voices the film's heroine Rin. Other cast members include Ayana Shiramoto as the mysterious girl Nasuha, Yousuke Itou as folklore researcher Tokiyo, Fukujūrō Katayama as the shaman Saion, and Shōgo Batori as Mikaya, a young man with secrets.
The staff ran a successful crowdfunding campaign to help fund the anime on the Japanese crowdfunding platform Makuake. The project met its 2 million yen (about US$17,800) goal in March 2017. The staff then ran a successful Kickstarter campaign for an English translation and funds to screen the film at festivals. The campaign ran from September to October 2017.
The film will get a prequel spinoff titled Amrita no Kyōen (The Feast of Amrita), and it will debut in 2021. The story will center on a high school girl named Tamahi, who encounters strange creatures while navigating a gigantic apartment building.
As with Aragne: Sign of Vermilion, Sakamoto is producing the new anime film alone — he is producing the original concept, and also writing, animating, and directing the anime, and composing the music. Few anime productions of more than 60 minutes have featured a one-person production team in the past.
Sakamoto began working as a freelance anime creator in 2002. He directed NHK's Minna no Uta. He also worked on 3D computer graphics for Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence and created a tourism anime short for Matsuyama City in 2014.
Source: HIDIVE
