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1st Princess Principal Sequel Anime Film Delayed Due to COVID-19 Coronavirus Concerns

posted on by Egan Loo
Film would have opened on April 10

The production committee for the Princess Principal: Crown Handler film and Hakuhodo DY Music & Pictures announced on Thursday that they are delaying the film's release. They cited the government policies to contain the spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19), as well as the health and safety of moviegoers. The committee and Hakuhodo DY Music & Pictures will announce the film's new schedule as soon as it is decided on the film's website and social media accounts.

Princess Principal: Crown Handler is the first of six planned sequel anime films. It would have opened on Friday, April 10 before this delay. In addition, the streaming of the "Pri-Pri Secret Meeting Super" program and television series marathon on Sunday has also been canceled.

[Warning: The film's story contains story spoilers for the television anime's last episode. Highlight the white text to read.]The film is set in London at the end of the 19th century and after the attempted assassination of the Imperial princess in the television anime. The Empire is increasing counter-spy actions in the wake of the incident, and finds Control, the Commonwealth group in charge of covert operations against the Empire, at unease and suspecting its spy within the royal family as a double agent. Control assigns their spy ring Dove with a new mission to extract a secondhand bookstore owner and deliver him to Commonwealth hands. Ange, Dorothy, and Chise successfully spring the bookstore owner from an Imperial prison. Control also assigns Dove to make contact with Bishop, their spy within the royal family, to ascertain their loyalties.

The cast includes:

Ayaka Imamura, the voice actress for Ange in the previous television series, retired in June 2018 due to her worsening health.

Masaki Tachibana (Barakamon, .hack//Quantum) is returning from the previous television series to direct the film at Actas. Noboru Kimura (Gundam Build Divers, Solty Rei) is supervising and writing the script, instead of the television anime's Ichiro Okouchi (Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress). The film's main five cast members perform the film's ending theme song "Nowhere Land."Yuki Kajiura (Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Fate/Zero) is back to compose the music with sound director Yoshikazu Iwanami.

The films will be entirely new works (as opposed to compilations) that tell a story after the final television series episode. The first film was previously slated for last year.

Sentai Filmworks licensed the television anime series for the summer 2017 streaming season and also for home video. Sentai Filmworks described the television series:

At the end of the 19th century, London, the Kingdom of Albion has been split into East and West sides by a giant wall. Five girls attend Queen's Mayfaire, a conventional and prestigious school. Under the guise of regular high school girls, they act as spies under cover. Disguise, reconnaissance, infiltration, car chases... Each girl uses their own set of special skills to dart around the world of shadow.

Japanese distributors have delayed the release of such recent films as Shimajirō to Sora Tobu Fune (Shimajirō and the Flying Ship), Eiga Doraemon: Nobita no Shin Kyōryū, (Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's New Dinosaur), Gekijō-ban Ultraman Taiga: New Gene Climax (Ultraman Taiga The Movie: New Generation Climax), Eiga Precure Miracle Leap: Minna to Fushigi na 1-nichi (Everyone and the Mysterious 1 Day), Onward, Dolittle, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel III. spring song. They have also delayed the upcoming films Little Women, No Time to Die, Mulan, A Quiet Place Part II, Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway and Looking for Magical DoReMi.

Tokyo reported 97 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday. This number topped the previous highest record in a single day for the metropolis, which was 78 new cases on Tuesday. Tokyo now has 684 reported cases. The metropolitan government asked high schools to remain closed until early May, and asked local education boards to consider the same for elementary and junior high schools.

The first reported cases of COVID-19 were in Wuhan, China in December, and then the disease began to spread in varying rates and intensities across many parts of the globe through incubation in human hosts. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a world health emergency on January 30, and announced on March 11 that it is classifying the outbreak as a pandemic. As of Wednesday, the WHO reported that there are 823,626 infected individuals worldwide. 40,598 individuals have died from the disease.

As of Wednesday, the WHO reported that Japan has 2,178 cases of COVID-19 with 57 deaths. These numbers do not include the number of cases from the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Yokohama. That cruise ship had 712 infected passengers with seven deaths.

Thanks to Kougeru for the news tip

Sources: Princess Principal anime's website, NHK World-Japan


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