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A live-action film adaptation of Makoto Shinkai's 2007 anime film 5 Centimeters per Second is set to release in Japan in the fall of 2025. The film's official website opened and revealed the news today. As the third original anime film work by Shinkai following Voices of a Distant Star (2002) and The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004), 5 Centimeters per Second was released in Japan on March 3, 2007. Comix Wave Film's official website describes the synopsis as below: After transferring to the same elementary school, Takaki and Akari became best friends.However, their lives change when the families of both are forced to relocate. After a year of separation, Takaki is about to reunite with Akari. As he sits on the train from Tokyo, memories of the past rush through Takaki's head, his meeting time with Akari drawing ever closer. Takaki and Akari begin to wonder if they will ever be able to see each other again,...

CoMix Wave Films, best known for producing Makoto Shinkai works Your Name. and Suzume , announced today that they have started a brand new company to run theaters in Japan under the name Cwf Cinemas. The first theater is set to open in Summer 2026 in Nakagome, Saku City, Nagano Prefecture under the leadership of Noritaka Kawaguchi, who is also CEO of the anime studio. The cinema is being set up in Saku City with local business owner Kenji Nakata because the theater that Kawaguchi regularly went to in the area closed in Fall 2023 and so he decided to start their own to connect with the local community. Kawaguchi mentioned that the theater that he used to go to held the director’s talks for Shinkai’s films, which made him sad, so he decided to build his own in its place. Cwf Cinemas is set to screen local anime films and...

Your Name Box Office (China): Finally Crosses $100 Million Mark ( Photo Credit – YouTube )

The Japanese anime movie Your Name has finally achieved a remarkable feat at the Chinese box office after being re-released there. Directed by Makoto Shinkai, it now shares a record with The Boy and the Heron and his other creation, Suzume. The movie collected winning numbers on its second weekend in China, pushing it to cross the milestone. Keep scrolling for more.

Makoto Shinkai is reportedly considered one of Japan’s most commercially successful directors. His movies are almost always met with positive reviews. His first debut feature film was The Place Promised in Our Early Days, released in 2004. The movie that we are discussing in this article was originally released in 2016 and was produced by CoMix Wave Films. The movie received numerous accolades, and according to reports, a live-action movie is in development.

Your Name by...

The Wakayama Prefectural Police revealed on May 8, 2024 that Your Name. movie producer Koichiro Itou has been referred to prosecutors for additional violation of Child Prostitution & Pornography law in Japan, after it came to light that he had paid an underage girl for sexual intercourse.

The latest case involved a 17-year-old high school girl from Yokohama. Investigators believe Itou knew the girl was a minor when he paid her 30,000 yen for having sexual intercourse at his residence in December 2023.

He is also suspected of taking and saving photographs of the act.

According to to investigators, Itou admitted to paying at least 20 girls on social media for sexual favors.

“I met at least 20 underage girls on social media and paid them to have sex.”

Another victim of his was a 15-year-old high school girl, with whom he engaged in child prostitution for over two years, sending her 20,000 yen each time in return for sexual favors.

Cinephiles will have plenty to celebrate this April with the next slate of additions to the Criterion Channel. The boutique distributor, which recently announced its June 2024 Blu-ray releases, has unveiled its new streaming lineup highlighted by an eclectic mix of classic films and modern arthouse hits.

Students of Hollywood history will be treated to the “Peak Noir: 1950” collection, which features 17 noir films from the landmark film year from directors including Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, and John Huston.

New Hollywood maverick William Friedkin will also be celebrated when five of his most beloved movies, including “Sorcerer” and “The Exorcist,” come to the channel in April.

Criterion will offer the streaming premiere of Wim Wenders’ 3D art documentary “Anselm,” which will be accompanied by the “Wim Wenders’ Adventures in Moviegoing” collection, which sees the director curating a selection of films from around the world that have influenced his careers.

Contemporary cinema is also well represented,...

April’s an uncommonly strong auteurist month for the Criterion Channel, who will highlight a number of directors––many of whom aren’t often grouped together. Just after we screened House of Tolerance at the Roxy Cinema, Criterion are showing it and Nocturama for a two-film Bertrand Bonello retrospective, starting just four days before The Beast opens. Larger and rarer (but just as French) is the complete Jean Eustache series Janus toured last year. Meanwhile, five William Friedkin films and work from Makoto Shinkai, Lizzie Borden, and Rosine Mbakam are given a highlight.

One of my very favorite films, Comrades: Almost a Love Story plays in a series I’ve been trying to program for years: “Hong Kong in New York,” boasting the magnificent Full Moon in New York, Farewell China, and An Autumn’s Tale. Wim Wenders gets his “Adventures in Moviegoing”; After Hours, Personal Shopper, and Werckmeister Harmonies fill...

The Japanese media industry was surprised recently when Koichiro Ito, the producer of the fantasy adventure anime movie Suzume, was arrested in Japan for allegedly compelling a teenage girl to send him pictures that were inappropriate on social media. At the time, the girl was fifteen years old and in her first year of high school.

Suzume

He is charged with forcing a high school student who was to send him photos of herself wearing only her underwear after they met on an online social networking site (Sns). It appears that his purported involvement in the affair has surfaced in the course of the police inquiry into a related crime. The rest of the details about the case will be revealed in the future.

He worked on and contributed to a number of notable anime productions, but his most well-known works include Suzume, Your Name, and The Garden of Words.

Makoto Shinkai, who had worked with producer Koichiro Itou on blockbuster hits Your Name and Suzume, took to X (formerly Twitter) to express his frustration and sadness at the arrest of the latter on charges of violating the Child Prostitution & Pornography Law.

Shinkai started off his post by saying that he was quite shocked at the arrest of Itou (though he did not name the producer), and expressed his sympathies for the victim of the case.

He also apologized to the victim and to fans of the work for the anxiety/concern that the incident has caused.

“I am deeply shocked to see the news report of the arrest of the person involved in the production of the work. First of all, I would like to express my deepest sympathy to the victim. I am also truly sorry for causing anxiety to everyone who loves and supports the work.“

The director continued his post,...

The Wakayama Prefectural Police arrested 52-year-old Koichiro Itou, the producer who is well known for producing Your Name (Kimi no Nawa) movie on Feb 21, 2024 on suspicion of violating the Child Prostitution & Pornography Law Japan.

According to the police, Itou coerced a 15-year-old high school girl from Nagano who he met on an Sns platform to send her nude selfies, even though he was aware that she was a minor. This incident occurred in September 2021 and the producer is even suspected of offering 12,500 yen in cash in order to get the images.

Itou’s actions came to light when the cops were looking into another child prostitution case.

Itou admitted to the charge, however he stated he “cannot remember if it was this girl” because he had similar exchanges with others.

The police are further investigating this matter to find out if there were more victims as more images & videos were found in his possession.

The BFI today announce full details of a hotly anticipated two-month season dedicated to Anime, running at BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX from 28 March – 31 May. Originally planned for summer 2020 as part of the BFI’s major survey of Japanese cinema BFI Japan, the season arrives, at long last, to entertain and delight anime fans and novices alike.

The programme will include:

· A broad mixture of classic films such as Akira, Ghost In The Shell, Belladonna Of Sadness, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie and Tekkonkinkreet, as well as an early shorts programme spotlighting work from 1917-1946· Previews of new releases including the thrillingly original Inu-oh, high-octane urban fairy tale Bubble and the powerful and thought-provoking short Summer Ghost (2021) followed by a Q&a with director loundraw· Much-loved recent work by major auteurs Mamoru Hosoda, Makoto Shinkai (Your Name) and the late great Satoshi Kon· A spotlight on emerging female talent Naoko Yamada...

2021 marks Asian Movie Pulse’s second year of providing coverage on manga, complimenting our approach to cinema in highlighting both small indie publications and major publishers – across all genres. From slice-of-life to speculative sci-fi, ruminations on youth to struggles of adulthood, this list represents the best reads this year.

Counting down to our number one release, we hope you find inspiration in this list to check out various avenues of storytelling through manga. We look forward to seeing what 2022 brings with new and exciting titles already around the corner.

10. Never Open It: The Taboo Trilogy by Ken Niimura (Yen Press)

“Never Open It: The Taboo Trilogy is a collection of three stories from Ken Niimura that are rooted in well-known Japanese folk tales, such as Urashima Taro and The Crane Wife. Each story delves into the concept of the taboo, asking questions such as “Why are these rules meant to be followed?...

Following his short feature “Voices of a Distant Star”, which won him the Animation Kobe Award along with the Seiun Award for Best Media, director Makoto Shinkai continued his journey into animation, science fiction and love triangles in “The Place Promised In Our Early Days”. The movie, which was awarded Best Animation Film at Mainichi Film Concours, while exploring similar themes, has a much wider scale than his previous works. Similar to other works in Japanese animation, concepts like time, parallel worlds and combining various layers of reality constitute the foundation of a story following the lives of three individuals, but also hints at Japanese history and the nation’s outlook at an uncertain future.

The story takes place in an alternate version of the world, in which Japan not only lost World War II, but was also divided, with its north being occupied by the Soviet Union.

Collecting two stories based on the works of director Makoto Shinkai with “5 Centimeters per Second” penned by the iconic director himself. The release is accompanied by Children who Chase Lost Voices adapted by Asahi Akisaka.

“5 Centimeters per second When Takaki meets Akari in elementary school, they are as thick as thieves. She always teaches him the important things, while he does his best to protect her. After they are separated in middle school, though, they have to find their paths in life without each other…”

Children Who Chase Lost Voices Asuna is a shy and diffident girl who lives in the mountain town of Mizunofuchi. One day, she meets Shun, a boy who claims to be from a mythical land known as Agartha. However, just as a bond is beginning to form between them, Shun vanishes. As Asuna wishes she could see him again, she encounters Shin, another boy who looks just like Shun,...

“In the Cold War era of an alternate history, the Soviet Union has taken control of the northern island of Japan and cut it off from the rest of the country. Just south across the strait, a boy named Hiroki is fascinated by the mysterious tower the Soviets have constructed on the unreachable island, and he and his friend Takuya decide to build a plane that will take them over to see it. As they work, a girl named Sayuri becomes a part of their lives and the promise to one day fly to the tower. But when she disappears without a trace, their promise I left unfulfilled-possibly forever.” (Yen Press)

Exploring the delicacy and wonder of the ‘informative years’, Arata Kanoh builds a wonderful testament to the work of Makoto Shinkai with a novel adaptation that speaks to the emotional profundity of the source material. As a result,...

With each New Year bringing feelings of new beginnings and vows to explore new talents (at least until we slip just once from our gym routine!), the Screen Anime channel is excited to head into 2021 with a line-up themed around new beginnings, led by Keiichi Hara’s Annecy Award-nominated biopic Miss Hokusai, as well as The Place Promised in Our Early Days, the feature film debut of the now world-famous director Makoto Shinkai, and more!

Joining them later this month are the intense and action-packed thriller Jin-Roh (written by Mamoru Oshii of Ghost in the Shellfame), and the eclectic short-film anthology follow-up Genius Party Beyond. These four great films are also joined by this month’s binge-worthy TV series The Tatami Galaxy, the acclaimed eccentric romantic comedy from Masaaki Yuasa.

All titles will be available on Screen Anime from 27 December 2020 until 25 January 2021. The four feature films will be available in...

One week ago, Shinkai Makoto's Weathering With You opened in U.S. theaters and is already among my favorite films from the past 365 days. It's also been widely acclaimed by critics, as noted at Rotten Tomatoes, and has proven to be a popular success, as calculated by Box Office Mojo. The story "takes flight into the fantastical while never losing sight of earthbound realities," as I wrote in my review, and thus fits well within the director's oeuvre, including his features Your Name (2016), 5 Centimeters Per Second (2007) and The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004), as well as the shorter Voices of a Distant Star (2002). Among those fine films is The Garden of Words (2013), which is now being mounted in...

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