News
French-Japanese Film Ghost Cat Anzu's Video Reveals New Cast Member Ikue Ōtani
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
TOHO animation debuted a new special "Pi-Pi-chan" video on Saturday for Ghost Cat Anzu, Shinei Animation and France's Miyu Productions' 2D-animated film. The staff also revealed that Ikue Ōtani will voice the forest fairies Pi-Pi-chan in the film. The characters appear in the new video.
The film stars:
- Mirai Moriyama as titular Anzu
- Noa Gotō voices Karin
- Munetaka Aoki as Tetsuya, Karin's father
- Miwako Ichikawa as Yuzuki, Karin's mother
- Moonriders' member Keiichi Suzuki as Oshō, Anzu's foster parent
- Shingo Mizusawa as the god of poverty
- Skirt (Sawabe Wataru) as Tanuki, another supernatural creature
Mutsuo Yoshioka and Shōhei Uno also contribute voices.
Cast members also acted as the characters in footage that served as a reference for animating the characters, with their spoken lines during the filming of their movements also being used in the film.
Yōko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita are directing the film, and Shinji Imaoka is writing its script. The film will be 90 minutes long and will utilize mixed animation techniques combining 2D digital animation with rotoscopy. Yōko Kuno is the character designer, Julien De Man is the art director and color key artist, Namiko Ishidate and Yukie Nakauchi are the animation directors, and Keiichi Suzuki is composing the music.
Chiaki Satō (A.S.A.B) performs the theme song "Matatabi."
The film screened as a work-in-progress at the Annecy Animation Festival in June 2023. The Paris-based CHARADES company will handle international sales. GKIDS has acquired the North American rights to the film.
Miyu Productions describes the film's story:
Karin, 11 years old, is abandoned by her father at her grandfather's house, the monk of a small town in the Japanese countryside. Her grandfather asks Anzu, his jovial and helpful although rather capricious ghost cat, to look after her. The meeting of their strong characters causes sparks, at least at the beginning…
Kodansha published the one-volume Bakeneko Anzu-chan manga in 2007.
Sources: TOHO animation's YouTube channel, Oricon News
