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Keigo Higashino's Kusunoki no Bannin Novel Gets Anime Film in 2026

posted on by Joanna Cayanan
Sword Art Online director Tomohiko Ito helms film at A-1 Pictures

Flag Pictures announced on Tuesday the anime film adaptation of Keigo Higashino's Kusunoki no Bannin (The Camphorwood Custodian) novel, which will premiere in 2026. Sword Art Online and ERASED director Tomohiko Ito is directing the film at A-1 Pictures. Aniplex will distribute the film. The film's super teaser visual was also revealed:

kusunoki
Image courtesy of Flag Pictures

kusunoki2
Image via Amazon
The novel's story centers on Reito, a young man who was unreasonably fired from his job, and in revenge has committed a crime and gets arrested. He tries to appeal to the investigator to no avail, and he is sent to the prosecutor's office, where he waits for his indictment. Suddenly, a lawyer appears and tells Reito that he can be released if he follows his client's order.

Reito takes the gamble and accepts the condition, and the client turns out to be his late mother's half-sister, Senshu Yanagisawa. Senshu has only one order for Reito: to become the camphorwood tree custodian at Tsukigō shrine. Reito becomes the camphorwood tree custodian and meets different people who visit the temple grounds for different reasons.

Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha published Higashino's novel in 2020 in hardcover, and released the novel in paperback in 2023. The novel has over 1 million copies in circulation.

Higashino's The Miracles of the Namiya General Store (Namiya Zakkaten no Kiseki) novel was serialized in Kadokawa's Shosetsu Yasei Jidai literary and novel magazine in 2011. Kadokawa published the novel in one volume in 2012. Yen Press published the novel in English in 2019. The novel inspired stage play adaptations in 2013 and 2016, musical stage plays in 2017 and recently in March, and a live-action film also in 2017.

Higashino's 1998 Himitsu (Secret) novel inspired a live-action film in 1999 and a live-action drama in 2010. Vertical published the novel under the English title Naoko: A Novel in 2004.

Source: Press release



Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.

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