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Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window Film Wins Best Animated Feature Awards at Anima 2025
posted on by Alex Mateo
Akihito Izuhara's 2023 short film "Kawauso" won the Press Award for Best Short Film (UPCB and UCC) at the event.
The film opened in Japan in December 2023.
Kuroyanagi's memoir tells her story of going to school at Tomoe Gakuen, after not fitting at her original elementary school. She meets unique students and learns new things at school, even as Japan descends into war. Kuroyanagi published the book in Japan in 1981, where it became a bestseller over the next year. It became required reading for Japanese elementary school students in the 1980s, and was also translated in English and many other languages worldwide.
Seven-year-old Liliana Ohno stars in the film as protagonist Totto-chan.
Shinnosuke Yakuwa (Eiga Doraemon: Shin Nobita no Daimakyō - Peko to 5-nin no Tankentai, Doraemon the Movie: Nobita and the Birth of Japan 2016, Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Chronicle of the Moon Exploration) directed the film at Shinei Animation. and he also penned the script alongside Yōsuke Suzuki (Pazudora). Shizue Kaneko (Monster Strike The Movie, Adachi and Shimamura, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord) designed the characters.
Shinei Animation won the Hiroshi Ōkawa Award for its work on the film at the third Niigata International Animation Film Festival on February 7. The movie won the Paul Grimault Award for feature films at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2024.
Sources: Anima 2025, Deadline (Melanie Goodfellow)
