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Aniplex USA to Screen I Want to Eat Your Pancreas Anime Film in U.S. Theaters
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Anime News Network's coverage of Anime Expo 2018 is sponsored by Yen Press.
Aniplex of America announced during its panel at Anime Expo on Thursday that it will screen the anime film of Yoru Sumino's I Want to Eat Your Pancreas novel in theaters in the United States. It did not reveal the opening date for the film. Aniplex of America is streaming an English-subtitled trailer for the film, and also opened a website for the film.
The film will get a preview screening for the full film on July 24 in Tokyo. The film will open on September 1 in Japan.
Mahiro Takasugi will voice the unnamed protagonist, and Lynn will play the lead female character Sakura Yamauchi. Other cast members include:
- Yukiyo Fujii as Kyōko
- Yūma Uchida as Takahiro
- Jun Fukushima as Gum-kun
- Atsuko Tanaka as the protagonist's mother
- Shinichiro Miki as the protagonist's father
Shin'ichirō Ushijima is directing the film and writing the script, while Yūichi Oka is the chief animation director and character designer. Hiroko Sebu is composing the music. Studio Voln (Idol Incidents, Ushio & Tora) is producing the animation.
Other staff members include:
- Art Director: Yukako Ogawa
- Assistant Art Director: Yoshito Watanabe
- Sound Director: Shoji Hata
- Sound Effects: Noriko Izumo
- Color Design: Yoshinori Horikawa
- Photography Supervisor: Hiroshi Saitō
- Director of Photography: Mayuko Koike
- 3DCG Director: Koremi Kishi
- Editor: Yumi Jinguji
- Animation Producer: Keiji Mita
- Distributor: Aniplex
Rock band sumika are performing the film's theme song, opening theme song, and insert song.
The novel's story is told from the point of view of an unnamed protagonist who happens to find a diary in a hospital one day. The diary belongs to his classmate, a girl named Sakura Yamauchi, who is revealed to be suffering from a terminal illness in her pancreas, and who only has a few months left to live. Sakura explains that the protagonist is the only person apart from her family that knows about her condition. The protagonist promises to keep Sakura's secret. Despite their completely opposite personalities, the protagonist decides to be together with Sakura during her last few months.
Sumino began serializing the story on the Shōsetsu-ka ni Narō ("Let's Become Novelists") website in 2014. Futabasha published the novel in print in June 2015, with cover art by loundraw (Tsukigakirei character designer). The novel and various related books have since garnered over 2 million copies in print.
The novel already inspired a live-action film starring Takumi Kitamura (DISH//) and Minami Hamabe, and the film premiered in Japan in July 2017. The live-action film played at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea and in Malaysia under the title Let Me Eat Your Pancreas.
The novel also inspired Idumi Kirihara's manga adaptation, which launched in Futabasha's Monthly Action magazine in August 2016, and ended in May 2017. Futabasha published the manga's second and final compiled book volume last June.
Seven Seas Entertainment has licensed both the original novel and the manga adaptation. The novel is slated for release on November 20, while the manga's first volume is slated for release on January 22, 2019.
Source: Aniplex USA's Anime Expo panel (Gabriella Ekens), Aniplex USA's YouTube channel
