News

On-Gaku: Our Sound's Kenji Iwaisawa Directs Hina is Beautiful Anime Film

Entertainment news source Variety reported on Friday that Kenji Iwaisawa is directing a new anime film titled Hina is Beautiful. The film will headline an Annecy Animation Showcase at this year's Cannes' Marché du Film. The event will take place on May 21. All the works that will exhibit at the showcase are works in progress.

Oscar-nominated scriptwriter Takamasa Ōe (Drive My Car, Dragons of Wonderhatch) is writing the film, and Naoyuki Asano (Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time) is the animation director and character designer.

Iwaisawa's ON-GAKU: Our Sound anime film is an adaptation of Hiroyuki Ohashi's "ON-GAKU" manga. Ohashi announced the film project in 2012, and launched a crowdfunding campaign on the Makuake website in July 2018. The film opened in Japan in January 2020. GKIDS screened the film in theaters in North America in December 2020, and then released the film on home video in March 2021.

The film won the Grand Prize at the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) in 2019. The film won the 24th Japan Media Arts Festival Awards' Entertainment Division's Grand Prize in 2021, and the 75th Annual Mainichi Film Awards' Noburou Oofuji Award in 2021. The film was also nominated for an Annie Award in the same year.

Source: Variety (John Hopewell, Pablo Sandoval)