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The Camphorwood Custodian Film Reveals Music Video With Anime Footage
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The staff for the anime film of Keigo Higashino's The Camphorwood Custodian (Kusunoki no Bannin) novel revealed on Friday a new animated music video for the film, featuring Uru's theme song "Katawara nite Tsukiyo" (Moonlit Night By My Side).
The film will open in Japanese theaters on January 30.
A new original text story will be exclusively distributed to moviegoers. This is the first time that Higashino has written such a text story as a bonus gift for moviegoers. The Kusunoki no Urawaza (The Camphorwood's Secret Power) story depicts the past of Chifune's cousin Masakazu, and it also reveals the camphorwood tree's previously unknown power that was not depicted in the original novel and film.
The film stars:
- Fumiya Takahashi as Reito Naoi
- Yūki Amami as Chifune Yanagisawa
- Takehito Koyasu as Masakazu Yanagisawa
- Miō Tanaka as Katsushige Yanagisawa
- Akira Kamiya as Tōichirō Ōba
Other cast members include: Kenjirō Tsuda, Tomokazu Sugita, Taku Yashiro, Reina Ueda, and Nobuo Tobita.
Sword Art Online and ERASED director Tomohiko Ito is directing the film at A-1 Pictures and Psyde Kick Studio. Aniplex will distribute the film.
Taku Kishimoto (Haikyu!!, 91 Days, Sakamoto Days) is penning the film's script. Blue Period manga creator Tsubasa Yamaguchi is designing the characters alongside Akiko Itagaki (Lonely Castle in the Mirror assistant character design). Hiroshi Takiguchi is the art director. Yūgo Kanno (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Ajin, Psycho-Pass) is composing the film's music. Uru performs the theme song "Katawara nite Tsukiyo" (Moonlit Night By My Side).
Additional staff includes:
- Art Setting: Yasumitsu Suetake
- Color Key Artist: Satoshi Hashimoto
- Costume Design: Tsuyoshi Takahashi
- CG Director: Noriki Tsukamoto
- Compositing Director of Photography: Teppei Satō
- Editing: Shigeru Nishiyama
- Supervising Sound Editor: Masatoshi Katsumata
- Re-Recording Mixer: Takahiro Fujishima
The novel's story centers on Reito, a young man who was unreasonably fired from his job, and in revenge has committed a crime and gets arrested. He tries to appeal to the investigator to no avail, and he is sent to the prosecutor's office, where he waits for his indictment. Suddenly, a lawyer appears and tells Reito that he can be released if he follows his client's order.
Reito takes the gamble and accepts the condition, and the client turns out to be his late mother's half-sister, Chifune Yanagisawa. Chifune has only one order for Reito: to become the camphorwood tree custodian at Tsukigō shrine. Reito becomes the camphorwood tree custodian and meets different people who visit the temple grounds for different reasons.
Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha published Higashino's novel in 2020 in hardcover, and released the novel in paperback in 2023. The novel has over 1 million copies in circulation.
Source: Press release
