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Lonely Castle in the Mirror, Anime Supremacy Book Author Will Give U.K. Talks From Thursday
posted on by Andrew Osmond
On Friday October 10, she will appear at Sheffleld's Millennium Galley (tickets) at 6 p.m., in conversation with Nozomi Uematsu. This event is part of the Off The Shelf Festival of Words.
On Sunday October 12, she will appear at Cheltenham Town Hall (tickets) at 7 p.m. in conversation with Daniel Hahn. It will be followed by a book signing. This event is part of the Times and Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival.
These events are presented in collaboration with The Japan Foundation.
Tsujimura's other novels include Anime Supremacy!, about the lives of three female anime professionals, which was adapted into a live-action Japanese feature film in 2022 with animated sequences.
Another of Tsujimura's novels, A School Frozen in Time, is about children in a mysterious empty school where the clocks have stopped. It was adapted into a manga drawn by Naoshi Arakawa, serialised in Monthly Shonen Magazine from 2007 to 2009, and published in four volumes by Kodansha Comics.
The film Lonely Castle in the Mirror opened in Japan on December 23 2022. Keiichi Hara (Colorful, Miss Hokusai, The Wonderland) directed the film at A-1 Pictures. Miho Maruo, who wrote the script for Hara's Miss Hokusai and The Wonderland films, penned the script. Keigo Sasaki (Blue Exorcist, ERASED, The Seven Deadly Sins) designed the characters, and was also the chief animation director. Russian artist Ilya Kuvshinov, who drew the character designs for The Wonderland, was credited for visual concept and castle design. Harumi Fuuki, who has composed the music for Hara's prior films, returned for this new film. Shochiku is distributing the film.
The Japan Academy Film Prize Association for excellence in film nominated the film for Animation of the Year in the 46th annual awards.
Tsujimura's novel Lonely Castle in the Mirror was published in English in April 2021 by Doubleday, which describes the story:
In a tranquil neighbourhood of Tokyo, seven teenagers wake to find their bedroom mirrors are shining.At a single touch, they are pulled from their lonely lives to a wondrous castle filled with winding stairways, watchful portraits and twinkling chandeliers. In this new sanctuary, they are confronted with a set of clues leading to a hidden room where one of them will be granted a wish. But there's a catch: if they don't leave the castle by five o'clock, they will be punished.
As time passes, a devastating truth emerges: only those brave enough to share their stories will be saved.
Tsujimura's original novel was published in Japan in 2017. It won the 2018 Japan Booksellers' Award, topped Da Vinci magazine's Book of the Year list in 2017, and won the grand prize in the King's Brunch Book Prize 2017. Erewhon released a hardcover English edition of the novel on October 18.
Mito launched a manga adaptation in Ultra Jump in 2019. Shueisha published the manga's fifth and final compiled book volume in May 2022. Seven Seas licensed the manga.
From the description of the London talk:
"Mizuki Tsujimura has won the Mephisto Prize for A School Frozen in Time, the Yoshikawa Eiji Literary Prize for New Writers for Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon, along with the Naoki Prize for Kagi no nai yume wo miru (A Dream Without a Key) and first place in the 15th Japan Booksellers' Award for Lonely Castle in the Mirror. Many of her works have been adapted for screen, and several of her works, including A School Frozen in Time, Lonely Castle in the Mirror, and Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon, have been published in translation, reaching readers around the world."
