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Kitarō Tanjō: Gegege no Nazo Anime Film Opens at #2 With 160 Million Yen
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Godzilla Minus One opened in Japan on November 3, 2023 ("Godzilla Day"), which was the anniversary of the first Godzilla film's November 3, 1954 release. The new film screened at The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) as the closing film of this year's event on November 1.
The film sold 648,600 tickets for 1,041,193,460 yen (about US$6.93 million) in its first three days in the Japanese box office. The film sold 14.7% more tickets and earned 22.8% more in its first three days than the last live-action Japanese Godzilla film, Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi's Shin Godzilla, did in its first three days in 2016.
Ryunosuke Kamiki plays protagonist Kōichi Shikishima, and Minami Hamabe plays heroine Noriko Ōishi. (The two also lead the cast of NHK's ongoing weekday morning series Ranman.) Other cast members include Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Andō, and Kuranosuke Sasaki.
The film will open in U.S. theaters on December 1.
Yamazaki is the director and writer, and is also credited for visual effects. Yamazaki has primarily directed live-action films, including the Always: Sunset on Third Street, Returner, and Parasyte films, but has also directed CG films such as Stand By Me Doraemon.
The film opened in Japan last Friday.
Gou Koga (Gegege no Kitarō: Nippon Bakuretsu!!, One Piece Episode of Sabo) directed the film at Toei Animation, and Hiroyuki Yoshino (Macross Frontier, World Trigger, 13 episodes in 2018 GeGeGe no Kitarō) wrote the screenplay. Touko Yatabe (2018 GeGeGe no Kitarō's third ending sequence unit director, Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time assistant director) designed the characters. The main cast includes Toshihiko Seki as Kitarō's father, who would eventually become Medama Oyaji, and Hidenobu Kikuchi as Mizuki, a salaryman who heads to a cursed village under secret orders.
The film is part of four "big projects" commemorating the 100-year anniversary of Shigeru Mizuki's birth. Mizuki passed away in 2015 at 93 years old. Another project is a new Akuma Kun anime that premiered on Netflix on November 9.
The film opened in Japan on November 3 and sold 192,300 tickets for 242,553,320 yen (about US$1.61 million) in its first three days in the Japanese box office.
Hazumu Sakuta (Neko no Dayan, Uchū Nanchara Kotetsu-kun) directed the third film at Fanworks. Takashi Sumita (Europe Kikaku) returned from the first film to pen the third film's script. Yoshihiko Inohara and Manami Honjō returned from the first and second film to narrate the third film.
In the third film's story, the characters find an old building deep in the forest. The building turns out to be a toy factory. They all begin to make toys in the factory, with Shirokuma using his skill to operate the sewing machines, and Penguin? inspecting toys with a magnifying glass. But the factory itself hides something more special.
Sumikko Gurashi debuted in 2012 as slightly negative characters who like to stay in the corner of a room. The characters include "Shirokuma," a polar bear who is sensitive to cold; "Penguin?" (with a question mark in its name), a penguin who is unsure if it is actually a penguin; "Tonkatsu," a piece of pork cutlet that was left uneaten; "Neko," a shy cat; and "Tokage," who hides his nature as one of the last dinosaurs.
The first anime film, titled Sumikkogurashi – Good to be in the corner, opened in Japan in November 2019. The film eventually sold a total of 1.22 million tickets, and it earned 1.4 billion yen (about US$12.8 million) at the box office in Japan as of February 2020. The film won the award for Best Animation of the Year at the 29th Annual Japan Movie Critics Awards in June 2020.
Eiga Sumikko Gurashi: Aoi Tsukiyo no Mahō no Ko (The Magical Child of the Blue Moonlit Night), the second film, opened in Japan in November 2021, and sold about 200,000 tickets to earn about 250 million yen (about US$2.22 million) in its first three days.
The franchise had its first-ever television anime that premiered its first episode on October 6, and then premiered all five episodes on November 5.
The manga is a spinoff of Tatsuya Iguchi's Drop novel, and centers on the legendary delinquent Tatsuya Iguchi (the author Iguchi claims that the manga is based on his early life). After Iguchi gets out of juvenile detention, he is determined to start a new, clean life, moving away from his native Komae, and staying with relatives running a yakiniku restaurant in Chiba, struggling all the time from relapsing into his old habits of violence.
Hiroshi Shinagawa directed and scripted the film. Yūki Kura stars in the film as protagonist Tatsuya Iguchi.
Shinagawa previously directed a live-action film adaptation of Iguchi's Drop novel in 2009, as well as a live-action series adaptation that premiered on June 2.
The encore screening opened on October 20. The encore screening run ranked at #1 in its first weekend, and sold 122,000 tickets to earn 159,197,710 yen (about US$1.06 million) in its first three days.
The movie has become the franchise's highest-selling and highest-earning film installment, in terms of both the number of tickets sold and yen earned at the box office. The film topped Japan's box office for 2022 in terms of yen earned and tickets sold.
The manga follows mystery-solving college student Totonō Kunō. At the beginning of the story, the police bring him in for questioning on suspicion of the murder of his classmate. The film centers on the manga's "Hiroshima Arc," which appears in the manga's second to fourth volumes. The "Hiroshima Arc" begins when Kunō travels to Hiroshima, and gets involved in a fight for the Kariatsumari family's inheritance.
The film opened on September 15, and sold 609,600 tickets to earn 850,483,760 yen (about US$5.71 million) in its first three days, ranking #1 in its opening weekend. Masaki Suda reprised his role as protagonist Totonō Kunō from the manga's live-action series.
Hiroaki Matsuyama, Tomoko Aizawa, and Ken Arai all return from the series as director, scriptwriter, and music composer, respectively.
"Gintama on Theater 2D: Baragaki-hen," the compilation film of the "Baragaki" (Thorny) arc of the Gintama anime, dropped out of the top 10 in its second weekend, but still earned 21,357,600 yen (about US$144,500) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 78,109,500 yen (about US$528,500).
P.A. Works' new original feature-length anime film project Komada - A Whisky Family (Komada Jōryūsho e Yōkoso, literally "Welcome to the Komada Distillery) dropped out of the top 10 in its second weekend, but still earned 18,439,830 yen (about US$124,700) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 78,247,200 yen (about US$529,400).
Sources: Kōgyō Tsūshin (link 2), comScore via KOFIC
