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Shoji Kawamori's Labyrinth Anime Film Unveils More Cast, January 1 Debut in 2nd Teaser

The official website for Shōji Kawamori's original animation film Labyrinth (Meikyū no Shiori) began streaming its second teaser trailer on Friday. The teaser announces one more cast member and the January 1, 2026 opening for the film.

Takuto Teranishi (Ramen D Matsudaira Kunimitsu, Your Lie in April stage play) of the idol group timelesz makes his voice-acting debut as Suguru Kagami. Kagami is a young, internationally renowned entrepreneur who researches in college on how to directly connect the human brain to smartphones. Kawamori had seen Teranishi performing on stage, and praised Teranishi's first foray into voice-acting.

The previously announced cast members include (Note: Character name romanizations are not official):

Atarashii Gakkō! pop group member Suzuka in her voice-acting debut role as protagonist Shiori Maezawa and her other self Shiori@Revolution

Taizō Harada as Komori, a rabbit stamp

Aoi Itō as Kirara Kurashina, Shiori's schoolmate

Jun Saitō as Kento Yamada, Shiori's classmate

The film centers on Shiori Maezawa, a completely ordinary high school girl who finds herself in a deserted parallel world of Yokohama after her smartphone suddenly breaks. When she checks her phone, she finds photos of herself on her social media accounts that she does not remember posting. In order to stop her other self from going out of control, Shiori tries to escape from her smartphone's strange labyrinth.

Kawamori is directing the anime, his first feature-length animated film not based on an existing franchise, at SANZIGEN. The original story concept is credited to the companies Slow Curve, Vector Vision, GAGA, and Fuji Television, and Slow Curve is also credited with planning and producing the project. Risa Ebata (Macross Frontier, AKB0048) is designing the characters, and Taichi Hashimoto (Listeners, Gate Keepers 21) wrote the script.

Kawamori stated in a comment that the film is born from the idea that smartphones that people use are "another self," that accumulates data such as personal information. Kawamori added that he aims to create an emotional, pop entertainment piece that combines song and horror.

Kawamori is perhaps most famous for being a key creative planner in The Super Dimension Fortress Macross anime series. He designed most of the franchise's iconic transforming Variable Fighter mecha, and oversaw most of the main installments in the franchise, including the latest, Macross Delta.

Kawamori has also created the Aquarion, AKB0048, and Arjuna series, and was chief director on Jūshinki Pandora at Satelight, the anime studio for which he served as a board director. He has contributed mechanical design work to Patlabor: The Movie, Patlabor 2: The Movie, Eureka Seven, Outlaw Star, Ghost in the Shell, and more. He is credited as the original creator of The Vision of Escaflowne, Basquash!, and Nobunaga The Fool. He has worked in anime production as a director, screenwriter, mechanical designer, and storyboarder.

Sources: Meikyū no Shiori anime film's website, Comic Natalie