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Saekano Anime Film's English-subtitled Teaser Streamed
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
Aniplex of America began streaming a teaser video for Saenai Heroine no Sodate-kata fine, the upcoming Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend film, on Monday.
The film opened in Japan on Saturday.
Original light novel series author Fumiaki Maruto wrote a new novel that participating theaters are giving out to the film's theatergoers. The novel, titled Saenai Heroine no Sodate-kata After, is a sequel that is being distributed as seven different stories over the course of seven weeks. The first week's edition of the novel has the subtitle "One Year Later." Attendees for the first week of screenings will also receive a pinup signed by the cast.
Kanta Kamei served as chief director at CloverWorks, and Akihisa Shibata (episode director for the two previous seasons) was the director. Fumiaki Maruto returned to write the script, and Tomoaki Takase returned to design the characters. Aniplex is distributing the film.
The returning cast includes:
- Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Tomoya Aki
- Kiyono Yasuno as Megumi Katō
- Saori Ōnishi as Eriri Spencer Sawamura
- Ai Kayano as Utaha Kasumigaoka
- Sayuri Yahagi as Michiru Hyōdō
- Chinatsu Akasaki as Izumi Hashima
- Tetsuya Kakihara as Iori Hashima
The film is not a compilation film of the previous anime, but a new work.
Maruto's original light novel series with illustrations by Kurehito Misaki revolves around Tomoya Aki, an otaku who is working part-time to earn enough money to buy anime on Blu-ray Disc. He meets a beautiful girl on his way home during spring vacation. He eventually models the heroine of his own dōjin game after her. However, he finds out a month later that the girl is in fact his classmate, and he doesn't know her name. He learns that the girl — named Megumi — actually is hardly noticed by others. Tomoya also has no artistic ability or writing skills, so he asks ace of the art club Eriri Spencer Sawamura to provide the art, as well as the honor student Utaha Kasumigaoka to write the scenario. Can they produce a decent game for Comic Market?
The novels inspired an anime adaptation that premiered in January 2015 in Japan on Fuji TV's Noitamina programming block, and a second series premiered on the same block in April 2017. Aniplex of America licensed the first series under the title Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend, and streamed it on Aniplex Channel, Crunchyroll, and Hulu as it aired. Aniplex of America streamed the second series under the title Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend Flat on Amazon's now-defunct Anime Strike channel.