News

Odex to Screen Kuroko's Basketball Last Game, 21st Detective Conan Films in 5 Southeast Asian Countries

Southeast Asian film distributor Odex announced on Saturday that it will screen the Gekijōban Kuroko no Basuke Last Game (Kuroko's Basketball The Movie: Last Game) and Meitantei Conan Kara Kurenai no Love Letter (Detective Conan: Crimson Love Letter) anime films in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

Gekijōban Kuroko no Basuke Last Game's opening dates and cinemas in each respective country is as follows:

Singapore (Golden Village) - May 4
Malaysia (GSC) - May 4
Philippines (SM Cinemas) - May 17
Indonesia (CGV Blitz, Cinemaxx, Platinum) - to be confirmed
Vietnam (Lotte Cinema) - to be confirmed

The film opened in Japan on March 18 on 91 screens, and ranked #6 in attendance and #1 in its per-screen average in its opening weekend. The film sold 170,000 tickets for 250 million yen during its opening weekend.

Tadatoshi Fujimaki, who wrote the Kuroko's Basketball Extra Game manga the film was based on, was the chief supervisor on the film, and he wrote an "original episode" for the film. Shunsuke Tada returned from the three television anime seasons to direct the film at Production I.G. Noboru Takagi also returned to handle the series composition, Yōko Kikuchi returned to design the characters, and Yoshihiro Ike returned from seasons 2 and 3 to compose the music. The cast from the television anime series also returned to reprise their roles in the film.

The film is a sequel to the television anime series, and it takes place after Kuroko and Kagami become second-year students. An American street basketball team called Jabberwock comes to Japan and plays a friendly match with a Japanese team, but after the Japanese team suffers a crushing defeat, the team members of Jabberwock start mocking Japanese basketball. Their comments enrage Riko's father, and so he gathers a team made up of the five members of the Generation of Miracles plus Kuroko and Kagami, called Vorpal Swords, to have a revenge match against Jabberwock.

The Kuroko's Basketball franchise also recently received three compilation films. The films each screened for two weeks in September, October, and December, respectively.

Meitantei Conan Kara Kurenai no Love Letter's opening dates and cinemas in each respective country is as follows:

Singapore (Golden Village) - May 18
Malaysia (GSC) - June 22
Philippines (SM Cinemas) - July 12
Indonesia (CGV Blitz, Cinemaxx, Platinum) - to be confirmed
Vietnam (Lotte Cinema) - to be confirmed

The film will open in Japanese theaters on Saturday. The film will be a love story set in Osaka, and it will feature Heiji Hattori and Kazuha Toyama. The visual (pictured at left) shows Momiji Ōoka, a high school karuta champion who refers to Heiji as her future husband and is a romantic rival for Kazuha. She appears in the manga for the first time in the 91st compiled volume, which shipped on December 16 in Japan, and this will be her first anime appearance. Satsuki Yukino voices the character.

Kobun Shizuno, the director of the last six Detective Conan films, is returning to direct the film at TMS and V1 Studio. Takeharu Sakurai is also returning from earlier films to write the script based on Aoyama's story, and franchise composer Katsuo Ono is again providing the music.

The following cast members from the television anime are confirmed for the film: Minami Takayama as Conan Edogawa, Wakana Yamazaki as Ran Mōri, Rikiya Koyama as Kogorō Mōri, Ryō Horikawa as Heiji Hattori, Yūko Miyamura as Kazuha Toyama., and Daisuke Ono as Muga Iori.

The 20th film, Detective Conan: The Darkest Nightmare, opened in Japan last April, and set a record high for the film franchise at the box office.

[Via Anime Pilipinas]