GKIDS announced Thursday (23) that it has licensed the new anime of Makoto Shinkai's Weathering With You (Tenki no Ko). The film will have an awards-qualifying theatrical run this year, with a wider theatrical release slated for early 2020 with English subtitles and screenings.
The film will open in Japan on July 19. Shinkai has confirmed that the film will have a worldwide release, and release dates have already been decided for North America, Europe, Asia, and South America.
In April of this year, the first trailer for Weathering With You, the new film by Makoto Shinkai (Your Name), was released. The video features the couple Hodaka and Hina.
GKIDS describes the film:
During the summer of his freshman year of high school, Hokoda flees his remote island home, Tokyo, and quickly finds himself pushed to his financial and personal limits. The weather is exceptionally gloomy and rainy every day, as if to hint at his future. He lives his days in isolation, but eventually finds work as a writer for a mysterious occult magazine. Then one day, Hokoda encounters Hina on a busy street corner. This bright, strong girl possesses a strange and wonderful ability: the power to stop the rain and clear the sky…
Shinkai is credited with the original work, and is also directing and writing the film's scripts for CoMix Wave Films. Masayoshi Tanaka (your name, anohana, The Anthem of the Heart) is designing the characters, Atsushi Tamura (The Cat Returns, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin) is the animation director, and Hiroshi Takiguchi (The Garden of Words, Ajin) is the art director. STORY inc. is credited as producer, and TOHO will distribute the film. RADWIMPS are performing the film's theme song and providing the film's music. Shinkai is also preparing a new adaptation of the film, which will be available digitally and in print on July 18th.
The film will star Kotaro Daigo as Hokoda Morishima and Nana Mori as Hina Amano.
Shinkai's film Your Name premiered in Japan in August 2016 and became the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time in Japan, the second-highest-grossing Japanese film, and the second-highest-grossing anime film, with earnings of over 25 billion yen (approximately US$225 million). It is the highest-grossing anime film worldwide, having earned over US$355 million.
Source: ANN
