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GKIDS, Shout! Factory Release Children of the Sea Film on BD/DVD in September

GKIDS and Shout! Factory announced on June 15 that they will release Studio 4°C's anime film of Daisuke Igarashi's Children of the Sea (Kaijū no Kodomo) manga on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on September 1. The film's delayed theatrical release through Fathom Events will run August 11-12 with English subtitles and an English dub.

All home video releases will include bonus features such as an interview with director Ayumu Watanabe and CGI director Kenichiro Akimoto, as well as a separate interview with composer Joe Hisaishi. The Blu-ray Disc and DVD combo pack release will also include the exclusive “Turep – Looking for Children of the Sea” pseudo-documentary.

GKIDS announced in March that it was delaying its theatrical run for the film "to ensure the health and safety of [their] attendees." Fathom Events' screening was originally scheduled for April 20 and 22 in the U.S., followed by GKIDS' separate theatrical run on April 24. The film was also scheduled to screen in Canada on April 22-23.

GKIDS describes the film's story:

When Ruka was younger, she saw a ghost in the water at the aquarium where her dad worked. Now she feels drawn toward the aquarium and the two mysterious boys she meets there, Umi and Sora, who were raised by dugongs and hear the same strange calls from the sea as she does. As the kids get caught up in the mystery behind the sudden worldwide disappearance of the ocean's fish, they uncover cosmic connections that will change them forever.

Children of the Sea opened in Japan in June 2019 and ranked at #5 in its opening weekend. The film earned a cumulative total of 316,860,800 yen (about US$2.95 million) as of last June.

The film screened at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June 2019 in the festival's new Contrechamp category. The anime screened in competition for The Ottawa International Animation Festival's (OIAF) Grand Prize for Features award in September. The film won the Grand Prize in the 23rd Japan Media Arts Festival Awards in March.

Watanabe (Space Brothers, After the Rain) directed the film, and Kenichi Konishi (Tokyo Godfathers, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya) was the animation director and character designer. Hisaishi of Studio Ghibli fame composed the music for the film.

Viz Media published the original manga in English.

Source: Press release