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MONO NO AWARE Performs Umibe no Étranger Boys-Love Anime Film's Theme Song

The official website for the anime film of Kanna Kii's Umibe no Étranger (L'étranger du Plage or The Stranger on the Beach) manga announced on Tuesday that the band MONO NO AWARE is performing the film's theme song "Zokkon" (From the Bottom of My Heart). The band wrote the song specifically for the film.

In addition, the website revealed that composer and musician Mina Kubota (Aria the Animation, Macross Delta, A Whisker Away) is composing the film's music.

The story centers on Mio, a high school boy who lost his parents at an early age. Shun, a gay aspiring novelist living near Mio's house on a remote island in Okinawa, noticed Mio sitting for hours at a bench on the beach. They grew closer to each other, but Mio had to leave Okinawa. Three years later, Mio returns to face his feelings.

As previously announced, Taishi Murata is playing Shin Hashimoto in the film, while Yoshitsugu Matsuoka is playing Mio Chibana. Yu Shimamura is playing Sakurako.

Akiyo Ohashi (Land of the Lustrous manga's 2013 promotional video, Sakura Capsule) is directing the anime at Studio Hibari, and is also serving as scriptwriter and storyboarder. Kii, a former animator, is supervising the film, and is also drawing the film's character designs. Mayumi Watanabe is the chief animation director, while Takashi Hashimoto is the effects animation director.

Other staff members include:

• Art Director: Yumiko Kuga (Studio Jack)
• Color Designer: Kumiko Yanagisawa
• Director of Photography: Tomoko Minobe
• Editing: Masaki Sakamoto
• Sound Director: Akiko Fujita
• Sound Effects: Eiko Morikawa
• Recording: Shu Gong Lin
• Sound Production: Half HP Studio

The film will open in Japan on September 11. Shochiku is distributing the anime. The project is Blue Lynx's third project, after the Twittering Birds Never Fly and Given theatrical anime films, although the spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) delayed the Given film from its scheduled May 16 opening.

Fuji TV announced the anime adaptation of Kanna Kii's Umibe no Étranger on October 18.

Umibe no Étranger is Kii's debut work as a manga creator, and it ran in Shodensha's On Blue magazine in 2013. Kii launched a sequel manga titled Harukaze no Étranger (L'étranger du zéphyr or The Stranger of the Spring Breeze) on On Blue in July 2014. Shodensha published the manga's third compiled book volume in July 2017.

Sources: Umibe no Étranger's website, The Mainchi Shimbun's Mantan Web