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Kaze no Yō ni Anime Film's Trailer Features Voice Acting

The official website of the anime film adaptation of Tetsuya Chiba's (Ashita no Joe, Teppei) Kaze no Yō ni (Like the Wind) one-shot manga began streaming a trailer for the film on Sunday. The trailer is the first footage of the film with the vocal performances included.

The film will have a screening at the Ujiie Community Center in Sakura, Tochigi on June 11, and it will have another screening at the Tollywood "short movie theater" in Tokyo on July 9. The movie will be approximately 40 minutes long.

Tetsuya launched the crowdfunding campaign for the film on February 22. The project met its goal of 2 million yen (about US$17,725) in March and eventually ended on April 22, having raised 3,447,005 yen (about US$31,018).

Chiba published the "Kaze no Yō ni" one-shot in Kodansha's Shoujo Friend magazine in 1969. The manga centers around Sanpei, a boy beekeeper and the sole survivor of an accident that killed his entire family. Sanpei meets Chiyo, a girl who gets stung by a bee, and starts a new life in her village. Eventually, Sanpei cultivates the land that the villagers had abandoned, and then disappears. In the land now filled with flowers, Chiyo waits, believing Sanpei will return.

The announced cast includes:

• Masako Nozawa as Sanpei
• Minami Fukuhara as Chiyo
• Hana Takeda as Kamekichi
• Asako as Sabu
• Aine Shiono as Kunio
• Megu Ashiro as Shige
• Yuri Noguchi as Sachi
• Junpei Asashina as Sensei
• Reiko Suzuki as Osen
• Hiroki Maeda as Tora
• Toshiya Chiba as Masakichi
• Takayuki Yoshi as Jisuke
• Masaaki Yano as Mosaku
• Megumi Miyatsu as Tsune
• Keisuke Hamaoka as Villager A
• Michio Takaku as Sanpei's Father
• Shiori Inoue as Otome
• Michiyo Yanagisawa as Narrator

Toshiyuki Honda is directing the film at Ekura Animal, and is also in charge of storyboards and planning. Chie Hidono is writing the script, Masatsune Noguchi is the animation director, and Kou Nakagawa is composing the music.