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Astro Boy, King of Thorn, Ballad Trailers Streamed (Updated)

The MSN website began streaming the full 144-second trailer for David Bowers and IMAGI's computer-animated Astro Boy film on Tuesday. Bowers notes that the trailer is also streaming on the YouTube website. The film, which adapts Osamu Tezuka's pioneering manga about a robot boy hero, will open in North America on October 23.

A website registered by the Sunrise anime studio has opened for the anime film adaptation of Yuji Iwahara's King of Thorn science-fiction action manga. with a two-minute English trailer. According to the trailer, the film will have a worldwide release in 2010. The story follows Kasumi, a girl who was infected by a pandemic virus along with her twin sister Shizuku. Kasumi — but not Shizuku — was chosen to be among 159 other people who were placed into cryogenic suspension until a cure is found. The 160 wake up in the dark future populated by monsters, and Shizuku must survive while she searches for clues on what happened to the world and her sister.

Kazuyoshi Katayama (Appleseed video, The Big O, Doomed Megalopolis) will direct off a script co-written by himself and Hiroshi Yamaguchi (Bastard!!, Blue Submarine No.6, Yukikaze). Hidenori Matsubara (Ah! My Goddess, Sakura Wars, Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo) will design the characters, while Kenji Andou (Brigadoon, Karas, Origin: Spirits of the Past) will design the monsters. Tokyopop published the sixth and final volume of the manga in North America last year.

The official website for Takashi Yamazaki's live-action Ballad: Namonaki Koi no Uta period drama film has begun streaming a 107-second trailer. Tsuyoshi Kusanagi of the SMAP entertainment group stars in this historical romance based loosely on the plot of the award-winning Crayon Shin-chan: Arashi wo Yobu Appare! Sengoku Daikassen film (pictured at right). The film will open in Japan on September 5.

Other anime- and manga-based films that have recently added trailers include Toshiyuki Morioka's adaptation of Rieko Saibara's Onnanoko Monogatari semi-autobiographical manga, the double-billing of Kamen Rider Decade: All Rider Tai Dai-Shocker and Samurai Sentai Shinkenjā Ginmakuban Tenkawakeme no Tatakai, and Atsushi Muroga's live-action film adaptation of Michiharu Kusunoki's Wangan Midnight street-racing manga (trailer).

Source: Felix Ip, David Bowers, Manga Supreme Nippon Cinema

Images © 2009 IMAGI Crystal Limited
Original Manga © Tezuka Productions Co., Ltd. © 2009 Ballad: Namonaki Koi no Uta Production Committee
© Yoshito Usui/Futabasha, Shinei, TV Asahi, ADK 2009

Update: According to the King of Thorn film's official MySpace page, the English trailer advertising the 2010 worldwide release was screened at the 62nd Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland this month.