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Kazumi Nikaido Sings Theme for Takahata & Ghibli's Kaguya-Hime Film
posted on by Sarah Nelkin
Oricon reported on Thursday that singer-songwriter Kazumi Nikaido's new song “Inochi no Kioku” (Memory of Life) will be used as the main theme song for Isao Takahata's Kaguya-hime no Monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya) anime film. According to Amazon, Yamaha Music Communications will release the CD in Japan on July 24.
The famous Japanese folktale Taketori Monogatari (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter) centers on princess named Kaguya who was discovered as a baby inside the stalk of a glowing bamboo plant. Taketori Monogatari has inspired dozens of manga and anime stories, such as Reiko Shimizu's Kaguya Hime and Arina Tanemura's Sakura-Hime Kaden.
Takahata already revealed in 2009 that his next film will be based on the folktale. The tagline on the film's website reads, "A princess's crime and punishment."
Joe Hisaishi (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke) is composing the film's soundtrack. Takahata conceived the story and co-wrote the screenplay with Riko Sakaguchi. This will be Takahata's first film since My Neighbors the Yamadas about 14 year ago.
Toho had planned to release another anime film from Ghibli, The Wind Rises, on the same day as Kaguya-hime. However, Toho announced in February that it delayed Takahata's film until this fall. The last time that Miyazaki and Takahata had films opening on the same day, or even in the same year, was a quarter of a century ago when Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro and Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies were shown back-to-back in Japan in 1988.
The movie will premiere in Japan sometime this fall.
Source: Oricon Style via Tsk06, link 2
