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Seven Days War Anime Film Wins Sitges Award
posted on by Alex Mateo
Yūta Murano's Seven Days War anime film won the award for Best Animated Feature Film at the 53rd annual Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival in Spain on Saturday. Hello World and Lupin III THE FIRST were among the other nominees in the category.
The anime film of Osamu Sōda's Bokura no Nanokakan Sensō (Seven Days War or Our Seven-Day War) novel opened in Japan last December.
The film competed in the Features category at this year's Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
The mystery story and social satire begins on the day before summer vacation, when every boy in a first-year class of a downtown Tokyo middle school disappears. Was it some accident? A mass kidnapping? Actually, the boys holed themselves up in an abandoned factory on the riverbed. With support from the schoolgirls, the boys start a revolution against the adults from this "liberation zone." The new anime film shifts the settings to Hokkaido in the year 2020.
Yūta Murano (Brave Beats, Dream Festival!, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord) directed the film at Ajia-do. Ichiro Okouchi (Code Geass, Valvrave the Liberator, Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress) penned the film's script. Keishin designed the original concept for the characters, and Hiroshi Shimizu (Michiko & Hatchin, Megalobox) adapted those designs for animation. Sano ibuki performed the theme song "Kessen Zenya" (Eve of Battle).
Actress Rie Miyazawa returned from the original 1988 live-action film to play the character Hitomi Nakayama, the same character she played in the 1988 film as her major debut role.
Kadokawa Shoten published the novel in April 1985, and the novel inspired a live-action film starring Miyazawa in 1988. The novel also spawned a series of print sequels and spinoffs that has sold over 170 million copies and has added new volumes as recently as last year.
Masaaki Yuasa's Ride Your Wave film won the festival's Best Animated Feature Film award last year. Other previous films that have won the same award at Sitges include Mamoru Hosoda's Mirai film in 2018, Makoto Shinkai's your name. film in 2016, Miss Hokusai in 2015, and Tatsumi in 2011. The live-action film of Kengo Hanazawa's best-selling zombie manga I am a Hero also won the Grand Audience Award and Award for Best Special Effects at the festival in 2016.
Sources: Seven Days War film's website, Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival's website, Anime! Anime!
