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Loups-Garous Virtual Reality Werewolf Anime Film Green-Lit
posted on by Egan Loo
The Japanese production company Bandai Visual has green-lit a theatrical anime film adaptation of the Loups-Garous Kihi Subeki Ōkami virtual reality werewolf novel by Requiem from the Darkness' Natsuhiko Kyōgoku. The film is slated to open in 2010. Blood+ director Jun'ichi Fujisaku is directing the animators at Production I.G and Trans Arts on this new project. Midori Gotou (Blood+, Otogi Zoshi, Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE The Movie: Princess of the Birdcage Kingdom) and Sayaka Harada are writing the screenplay.
Akiharu Ishii (Blood+, The Prince of Tennis) is adapting the original character designs by Chizu Hashii (Blood+, Detective Ritual). The Japanese pop band Scandal (Bleach) is composing the music. Kitty, Kinoshita Koumuten, Dentsu, and mixi are co-producing the project with Bandai Visual.
Viz Media announced at last month's New York Anime Festival that it is publishing the original near-future mystery novel in North America in January of 2010. (Kodansha publishes the novel in Japan.) According to Viz, the story is as follows:
Virtual reality. Murder. Werewolves. And teen girls! In a future where nothing is as it seems, can old legends come true? In the near future, humans will communicate almost exclusively through monitors, making real interaction a rarified and weak occurance for those living in a near totalitarian society. In this new world of communication, children are only allowed to interact personally on school grounds. So when a serial killer starts slaughtering junior high children the communication routes go under futher surveillance. And despite all the safeguards put in place to avoid physical interaction, the killer's latest victim turns out to have been in contact with three young girls: Mio Tsuzki, a certified prodigy; Hatsuki Matsuno, a uiet but opinionated classmate; and Ayumi Kono, her best friend. And as the girls get caught up in trying to quell curiosity under such terrorist scrutiny, Hatsuki learns that there is much more than meets the eye of their monitored communications.
Akihiko Higuchi has been adapting the novel in manga form in Tokuma Shoten's Monthly Comic Ryū magazine since September of 2006.
Sources: Moon Phase Comments, animeanime.jp
Image © Natsuhiko Kyōgoku/Kitty, Bandai Visual, Kinoshita Koumuten, Dentsu, mixi
Update: More background information added.
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