News

Saori Hayami, Mamoru Miyano Star in 2 Haikara-san ga Tōru Shōjo Anime Films

The official website for the anime film adaptation of Waki Yamato's Haikara-san ga Tooru manga revealed the project's main cast, director, and release date on Tuesday.

The anime will consist of two films, both slated for 2017. The first film's full title is Gekijōban Haikara-san ga Tōru Zenpen - Benio, Hana no 17-sai. Saori Hayami (Sound! Euphonium's Haruka Ogasawara, A Silent Voice's Shōko Nishimiya) is playing protagonist Benio "Haikara-san" Hanamura, while Mamoru Miyano (Mobile Suit Gundam 00's Setsuna F Seiei, Free!'s Rin Matsuoka) is playing her fiancé, Shinobu Ijūin. Kazuhiro Furuhashi (Rurouni Kenshin, Hunter x Hunter) is directing the films and pen the script.

The story is set in Tokyo in the Taishō era (1912-1926). The story follows Benio "Haikara-san" Hanamura, who lost her mother when she was very young and has been raised by her father, a high-ranking official in the Japanese army. As a result, she has grown into a tomboy -- contrary to traditional Japanese notions of femininity, she studies kendo, drinks sake, dresses in often outlandish-looking Western fashions instead of the traditional kimono, and is not as interested in housework as she is in literature. She also rejects the idea of arranged marriages and believes in a woman's right to a career and to marry for love.

Haikara-san's best friends are the beautiful Tamaki, who is much more feminine than Haikara-san but equally interested in women's rights, and Ranmaru, a young man who was raised to play female roles in the kabuki theater and as a result has acquired very effeminate mannerisms. Haikara-san's betrothed is Shinobu Ijūin, a second lieutenant in the army.

Yamato launched the manga in Kodansha's Shoujo Friend magazine in 1975. The series ended in 1977, and it earned the first Kodansha Manga Award for the shōjo category that year. Kodansha published eight compiled volumes of the manga.

The series previously inspired a 42-episode television anime that aired from 1978 to 1979 from Nippon Animation, a live-action film, a live-action television series, and two live-action television specials.

Yamato's Asakiyumemishi - The Tale of Genji historical shōjo manga also inspired an anime adaptation in 2009. This year marks the 50th anniversary since Yamato debuted as a manga creator with her Dorobō Tenshi short manga in 1966. She launched her Ishtar no Musume: Ono no Otsūden (The Daughter of Ishtar) manga in Kodansha's Be Love magazine in 2009, and is currently serializing it. Kodansha published the manga's 13th compiled book volume on May 13.

Sources: Anime! Anime!、 Comic Natalie