The official website of the Josee to Tora to Sakana-tachi (Josee, the Tiger and the Fish) anime film revealed cast members (pictured above), additional staff, and the first trailer on Thursday. The film will open in theaters in Japan on December 25, following the delay from its Summer premiere due to the effects of COVID-19.
Japanese actor Taishi Nakagawa (GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka live-action drama) is playing the male lead Tsuneo Suzukawa. Kaya Kiyohara (Taifuu no Noruda) is starring as the protagonist Josee. The supporting cast members are as follows:
Mai Ninomiya: Yume Miyamoto (SSSS.Gridman)
Hayato Matsuura: Kazuyuki Okitsu (Orange)
Kana Kishimoto: Lynn (Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai)
Veteran actress Chiemi Matsutera (Akari no Sato live-action film) is voicing the character Chizu Yamamura. Singer-songwriter Eve is performing the theme song "Ao no Waltz."
Staff
In-film Drama: Nanako Matsuda (Chameleon no Kakurenbo children book)
Production Design: Akihiro Hirasawa (Hisone to Maso-tan art design), Fumihiro Katagai (Princess Principal mechanical design), Shouko Nakamura (Mawaru Penguindrum animation director)
Layout Design: Toshihiro Kawamoto (Kekkai Sensen character design)
Art Director: Yuuji Kaneko (Black Fox)
Color Design: Hiroko Umezaki (Yozakura Quartet)
Director of Photography: Tsuyoshi Kanbayashi (Bungou Stray Dogs)
3DCG Director: Takuma Miyake (Carole & Tuesday)
Editing: Kumiko Sakamoto (A.I.C.O.: Incarnation)
Sound Director: Kazuhiro Wakabayashi (Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana wo Kazarou)
Sound Production: Sonilude
Koutarou Tamura (Noragami) is directing the film at animation studio Bones, with screenwriter Sayaka Kuwamura (Strobe Edge live-action film). Haruko Iizuka (Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau) is serving as both the character designer and chief animation director.
Nao Emoto (Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo.) and Illustrator loundraw (Tsuki ga Kirei original character design) are credited for original character design and concept design, respectively. Evan Call (Violet Evergarden) composing the music.
The anime film adapts Seiko Tanabe's short story, which she penned in Monthly Kadokawa's June 1984 issue. Kadokawa published the story as a novel in April 1985 and re-released it under the Kadokawa Bunko imprint in July 1987. The late author's work was also adapted into a live-action film in 2003. Nao Emoto began a manga adaptation in Da Vinci magazine on January 6.
I didn't even need to read the synopsis and the announcement to know that this is a movie. I can tell just by the character design and that background.
Hmm... Alright. Seems potentially decent at least, if not ok or maybe bad but. A tsundere heroine on a wheelchair... we'll see.
I rarely like the natural japanese voice in anime including in this anime but whatever.
Her home and the environment in which she is living looks a lot nicer compared to the squalor in the live-action movie and in the cast there is no sign of the old hag who looked after her. It seems like the anime will be a lot more "consumer friendly" version of the novel and that is a pity.
Look generic asf. The character designs are mediocre. Its gonna be a melodrama movie that studio Bones not good at. I think that they stick on action anime.
"They escaped the weight of darkness,
to forge a path into the marrow of the spirit.
They chose to drown in a deeper vacancy,
an emptiness that quells the null,
a pool for the forgotten..."