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Starwing Paradox Prequel Anime Film 'As One' Casts Ruki Shiroiwa

The staff for As One, Square Enix and Sunrise's feature-length theatrical prequel anime film to Square Enix's Starwing Paradox game, announced in a new special video on Wednesday it has cast JO1 boy group member Ruki Shiroiwa as the protagonist Yō.

This is Shiroiwa's voice-acting debut. The staff cast him after hearing "Himawari" (Sunflower), the song he personally wrote and composed as the fourth release from his self-produced project "PlanJ."

The film will feature a completely original story set 20 years before the game's story. The film's protagonist is Yō, a high schooler whose parents oppose his dreams of being a musician, and who is also beginning to lose his connection to his bandmates. One day, he hears a voice in his head crying out for help, and he is enveloped in a bright light. Elsewhere, in a world named Meguriboshi, two countries who have long been at war in search for energy sources begin an uneasy truce. Rako, a robot mechanic, falls unconscious while dealing with a large piece of space debris approaching the planet, and while unconscious, makes contact with Yō.

Kobun Shizuno (Detective Conan movies 15-21) is directing the film, and Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (Evangelion, Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water, Summer Wars) returns from the game to designing the film's characters. The other staffers include scriptwriters Shatner Nishida (Lupin III: Prison of the Past), Kana Matsui, and Masaya Honda (Boruto: Naruto Next Generations), mechanical designer Ippei Gyōbu (Gundam: Reconguista in G, Synduality), and production supervisors and producers Joe Teng and Takafumi Yūki, with Honoo and Studio GOONEYS animating the film.

The film opens in theaters on August 22.

The game launched in Japanese arcades in November 2018, and ended service in October 2021. Up to 16 players can fight each other in two teams of up to eight players each. The game's cabinet is made to look and work like a cockpit. Players are able to feel immersive movement matched to the game from the cabinet.

Sunrise (Bandai Namco Filmworks) handled the animation in the game.

The game's story takes place on the planet Meguriboshi, a planet "very, very, very far away" from Earth, where the light from Earth doesn't even reach. The planet is split between two kingdoms: "Kō Country A Slegga" and "Va Led Sei Kingdom." Meguriboshi produces a type of living energy called "Hoshinochi" (lit. Star Blood), and is the reason for the two kingdoms' eternal and ongoing strife. The stars of the battlefield are the "Ae Rial," gigantic weapons developed by the multinational corporation Kizana.

The Ae Rial are equipped with a "Rearide System" that allows them to transmit personalized information between planets. When an "AZ-One" special knight and an alien who has excellent flying skills are paired, only then can the true power of the Ae Rial be unleashed. And another planet with a type of sentient life who have a superior aptitude has been discovered. The name of that planet is Earth.

Sources: Gaga's YouTube channel, Comic Natalie

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Disclosure: Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc. (Sunrise) is a non-controlling, minority shareholder in Anime News Network Inc.