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2018 Anpanman Film Opens at #4, Detective Conan Back at #7

Soreike! Anpanman Kagayake! Kurun to Inochi no Hoshi (Let's go! Anpanman: Shine! Kurun and the Star of Life), the Anpanman franchise's 30th anime film, sold 112,116 tickets to earn 121,080,500 yen (about US$1.09 million) and rank #4 in its opening weekend. The film opened in Japan on Saturday in 207 theaters. The film earned 37.6% more in its opening weekend than the opening weekend of last year's Soreike! Anpanman Buruburu no Takarasagashi Daibōken! franchise film, which eventually earned 540 million yen (about US$4.86 million).

The film is projected to earn more than 600 million yen (about US$5.40 million).

The film's story begins in Anpanman World, where everybody is bustling around, getting ready for the annual Star Festival. On that day, an egg emerges from Baikinman's garbage box, and when it hatches, a mysterious boy named Kurun emerges from within. Though Kurun does not know where he came from, he spends his days having fun with everybody. But one day, black stars begin raining down. Anpanman thinks that something suspicious might be occurring at the Star of Life, and he heads there.

Meitantei Conan: Zero no Shikkōnin (Detective Conan: Zero the Enforcer), the 22nd film in the Detective Conan series, dropped back down from #5 to #7 at the box office in Japan in its 12th weekend, after it climbed back up to #5 from #7 last weekend. It earned 51,496,500 yen (about US$464,000) from Friday to Sunday. The film has now earned 8,455,401,700 yen (about US$76.1 million). The film enjoyed seven consecutive weekends at #1, only dropping to #3 in its eighth weekend.

Detective Conan: Zero the Enforcer had sold 1,289,000 tickets in its first three days to earn 1.67 billion yen (about US$15.6 million). The film's opening Saturday and Sunday sales represented 100.7% of the total that last year's Meitantei Conan Kara Kurenai no Love Letter film earned in its first Saturday and Sunday. Last year's film became the highest-grossing domestic film in Japan in 2017 by earning a total of 6.89 billion yen (about US$61.1 million), which was also a franchise record. The new film is now the highest-grossing film in the franchise.

Yuzuru Tachikawa (Mob Psycho 100, Death Parade) directed the new film. The film is a sequel of the series' 20th film, Detective Conan: The Darkest Nightmare, and centers on Tōru "Zero" Amuro. Police chief Hyōe Kuroda, who is rumored to be Rum in the Black Organization, appears for the first time in a film for the franchise.

The live-action film adaptation of Ema Toyama's Missions of Love (Watashi ni xx Shinasai!) romantic comedy manga fell off the top 10 rankings in its second weekend. It ranked #2 in its opening weekend.

The original video anime of Hiromi Takashima's Kase-san and Morning Glories (Asagao to Kase-san) manga dropped from #3 to #5 in the Japanese mini-theater rankings in its fourth weekend. The anime debuted on June 9, and spent two weeks at #1 in the mini-theater rankings.

The new anime's staff remains mostly the same from the staff who worked on the five-minute animated clip of the manga that debuted in May 2017. Kazuyuki Hashimoto (Cowboy Bebop, Summer Wars, Mai Mai Miracle) is replacing Yuka Hirama as art director, with Hirama now credited for concept boards. rionos is credited for music. Yui Yamada (as voiced by Minami Takahashi) and Tomoka Kase (Ayane Sakura) will perform the anime's theme song "Asu e no Tobira" (Door to Tomorrow). The song is a cover of the 2003 song of the same name by I WiSH.

Sources: Eiga.com, Kōgyō Tsūshin (link 2), The Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web, comScore via KOFIC