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Ancien and the Magic Tablet 2-Part Anime Short Debuts on March 10

Hulu Japan announced on Monday that the "Ancien to Mahō no Tablet ~Mō Hitotsu no Hirune Hime~" (Ancien and the Magic Tablet ~Another Napping Princess~) short anime will have two parts that will debut on March 10 and March 17, respectively.

The story will be a spinoff of Ancien and the Magic Tablet (Hirune Hime ~Shiranai Watashi no Monogatari~), the new anime film by director Kenji Kamiyama. The story will center on the adventure of Ancien, a girl that keeps appearing in Kokone's dreams. The story of the dream is one that Kokone's father told her as a mysterious fairy tale when she was little. The short expands on the story from the film.

Actors from the film will also voice roles in the short anime. Mitsuki Takahata will voice both Kokone Morikawa and Ancien. Similarly, Yosuke Eguchi will voice Kokone's father Momotarō and the character Peach. Rie Kugimiya reprises her role as Joy. Arata Furuta, who is confirmed to play Watanabe in the film, will voice the character Bewan in the short. Hideki Takahashi, who is confirmed to play Isshin Shijima in the film, will voice the Heartland King in the short.

The film's director Kenji Kamiyama is directing the short over episode director and storyboard artist Takashi Sano. Yoko Shimomura is composing the music for the short, as she is for the film. Harumi Doki is writing the script. Signal.MD and Imagica Image Works are handling animation production.

Ancien and the Magic Tablet will open in Japan on March 18. The New York International Children's Film Festival (NYICFF) will screen the film on March 19 in Japanese with English subtitles.

NYICFF describes the film's story:

This fender and genre-bending film takes us into the not-too-distant machine-driven future. Kokone should be diligently studying for her university entrance exams, but she just can't seem to stay awake. Aside from stealing precious study time, her napping is even more distracting, as it brings on strange dreams with warring machines that hint at family secrets that have been dormant for years. She can't ask her father, a hipster mechanic more talented and artful than his job requires, as he's always busy modifying motorcycles and cars in flights of fancy. What are these visions that lead Kokone at once closer to and farther away from her family? Like all the best anime, the film revels in multilayered fantasy to show how sometimes opposites—waking and dreaming, the past and the future—are far more intertwined than they appear.

I.G Port's new anime studio subsidiary Signal.MD (Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note, Anime Tamago's "Colorful Ninja Iromaki" short) is animating the film as its first anime film project. Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Moribito - Guardian of the Spirit, Eden of the East) is directing the film, as well as penning the script. Satoko Morikawa (The Cat Returns, Eden of the East, Xi Avant) is designing the characters, and Shigeto Koyama (Michiko & Hatchin, Moribito - Guardian of the Spirit, Heroman) is in charge of mechanical design. Animator Christophe Ferreira confirmed that he is working on the film's concept art, storyboards, and animation, and the website lists his role as "creature design." Warner Bros. will distribute the film. Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy XV) is composing the music for the film.