News

Anime Film Festival Malaysia Screens 7 Anime Films

Malaysian film distributor GSC Movies and Southeast Asian film distributor Odex announced on Wednesday that the Anime Film Festival Malaysia event will screen Gekijōban Mahōka Kōkō no Rettōsei: Hoshi o Yobu Shōjo (The irregular at magic high school The Movie: The Girl Who Summons the Stars), the live-action JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable film, Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale, One Piece Film Gold, Detective Conan: The Crimson Love Letter (Meitantei Conan Kara Kurenai no Love Letter), Gekijōban Kuroko no Basuke Last Game (Kuroko's Basketball The Movie: Last Game),and Fairy Tail: Dragon Cry. The event will take place at the Paradigm Mall at Petaling Jaya from August 25 to September 3.

The Gekijōban Mahōka Kōkō no Rettōsei: Hoshi o Yobu Shōjo screening will be the film's preview screening in Malaysia. The general screening for Malaysia will start on September 30, and the Japan import fan screening with goods from the Japanese screenings will take place on October 5.

The film opened in Japan on June 17 and sold about 107,000 tickets during its opening weekend to earn about 163 million yen (about US$1.47 million) and debut #5 at the Japanese box office. The film surpassed 500 million yen (about US$4.46 million) by July 18.

Aniplex of America describes the film:

Many months have passed and the spring season is almost upon them. The “irregular” elder brother Tatsuya and his smart younger sister Miyuki realize that their first year at Magic High School is about to come to a close. The siblings and their friends decide to spend spring break at a private villa on Ogasawara Island. Tatsuya and the others make the most of their brief vacation until a young girl named Kokoa appears before them. The mysterious young girl who escaped from a naval base tells Tatsuya her one wish...

Risako Yoshida, who served as a unit director and a storyboarder on the television anime series, directed the film at studio 8-Bit (Madhouse animated the television series). Original light novel series artist Kana Ishida returned to serve as the character designer and chief animation director. Original light novel author Tsutomu Satou wrote an original new story for the film, and he and WriteWorks wrote the script. Taku Iwasaki returned to compose the music.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable will open in Malaysia on August 31.

The film opened in Japan on August 4 and ranked #5 in its opening weekend.

The film's title is JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond wa Kudakenai Dai-Ichi-Shō (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable Chapter I), although the staff have not yet confirmed additional installments for the series.

Prolific filmmaker Takashi Miike (live-action Terraformars, Ace Attorney, Crows Zero, Yatterman, For Love's Sake, Ichi the Killer) directed the movie.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable is the fourth part of Hirohiko Araki's Jojo's Bizarre Adventure manga. The story is set in Morioh, located in S City in M Prefecture of Japan, and it follows the misadventures of Jōsuke Higashikata and his companions, as they are involved in a series of bizarre incidents in their town.

Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale screened in Malaysia on February 18, alongside the Japanese premiere.

The film opened in Japan on February 18, and sold about 308,376 tickets for 425,762,760 yen (about US$3.76 milion) in its opening weekend. The film was the first anime film to rank #1 in both weekend attendance and weekend box office receipt totals since Makoto Shinkai's your name. The film also set the opening-weekend record among films distributed by Aniplex.

The film had earned 2.3 billion yen in Japan as of April 6.

Original light novel author Reki Kawahara wrote the new story for the film. Tomohiko Ito returned from the two TV anime series and the anime special to direct the film at A-1 Pictures. Shingo Adachi also returned from the TV anime to design the characters based on abec's original character designs, and Yuki Kajiura returned to score the music.

One Piece Film Gold opened in Malaysia in August 2016.

One Piece Film Gold opened in July 2016 in Japan on 743 screens, which is the largest for any Japanese film. The film has since earned more than 4 billion yen (about US$41.94 million) and sold more than 3 million tickets.

The "YOKOSO! EIGAKAN!" program's website describes the film's story:

Set in Grantesoro, an independent country chartered by the World Government, home of the world's greatest entertainment city where well-known pirates, [Marines], and millionaires throughout the world gather in an "absolute sanctuary" that even the World Government can't touch.

There, Luffy and the others meet the ruler of the country, the golden emperor Guild Tesoro who easily wins pirates, the [Marines], and even the World Government over to his side with money. He is about to take action to satisfy his bottomless ambition which may result in major changes in power relationships in the New World…

Original manga creator Eiichiro Oda served as the film's executive producer as well as being credited with the original work. Hiroaki Miyamoto (One Piece episodes 352-679, assistant director for One Piece: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island) directed the film, and Tsutomu Kuroiwa (live-action Black Butler film, live-action Liar Game: The Final Stage film, live-action The Perfect Insider TV series) wrote the script. Masayuki Sato designed the characters for animation, and also served as chief animation director. Kazuo Ogura was the art director, while Nobuhito Sue was credited for art setting.

Detective Conan: The Crimson Love Letter opened in Malaysia on June 22.

Detective Conan: The Crimson Love Letter opened in Japanese theaters on April 15. The film sold 987,568 tickets and earned 1,286,928,000 yen (about US$11.88 million) in its opening weekend, setting a new opening weekend record for the franchise. The film also topped the Japanese weekend box office chart in its first weekend. The film has earned more than 6.5 billion yen as of June 4. The amount again sets a new record for the Detective Conan film series, beating the 20th film in the franchise, Detective Conan: The Darkest Nightmare, which earned 6.33 billion yen. The film is the fifth film in a row to set a new franchise record.

The film is a love story set in Osaka, and features Heiji Hattori and Kazuha Toyama. The visual (pictured at right) 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 film was her first anime appearance. Satsuki Yukino voiced the character.

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

Gekijōban Kuroko no Basuke Last Game (Kuroko's Basketball The Movie: Last Game) opened in Malaysia on May 4.

The Gekijōban Kuroko no Basuke Last Game 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, Yoko 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.

Fairy Tail: Dragon Cry opened in Malaysia on June 27.

The film opened in Japan on May 6, and earned 53,888,700 yen (about US$474,848) in its first weekend to rank at #10.

Tatsuma Minamikawa (episode director for Aldnoah.Zero, Attack on Titan, Haganai NEXT) directed the film at A-1 Pictures. Shoji Yonemura returned from the previous two television anime series to write the script, Yuuko Yamada (chief animation director for Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East, Persona 3 the Movie #3 Falling Down) was the character designer and chief animation director, and Yasuharu Takanashi returned from the previous anime series and Fairy Tail Zero to compose the music. GAGA is distributing the film. The two-member unit Polka Dots performed the film's theme song "What You Are."