News

Children of the Sea Film's Teaser Previews Joe Hisaishi's Music

TOHO began streaming a teaser trailer for Studio 4°C's anime film adaptation of Daisuke Igarashi's Children of the Sea (Kaijū no Kodomo) manga on Wednesday. The video previews music from the film's composer Joe Hisaishi, of Studio Ghibli fame.

The staff also unveiled a visual, the main cast and staff, and the film's June 7 theatrical premiere date.

The main cast includes, from left to right in the image below, Hiiro Ishibashi as Umi, Mana Ashida as Ruka, and Airu Kubodzuka as Sora.

Ayumu Watanabe (Space Brothers, After the Rain) is directing and Kenichi Konishi (Tokyo Godfathers, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya) is the animation director and character designer. Other staff members include:

• Art Director: Shinji Kimura
• CGI Director: Kenichiro Akimoto
• Color Key: Miyuki Itou
• Sound Director: Koji Kasamatsu
• Producer: Eiko Tanaka

Viz Media published the manga in English, and it describes the story:

When Ruka was younger, she saw a ghost in the water at the aquarium where her dad works. Now she feels drawn toward the aquarium and the two mysterious boys she meets there, Umi and Sora. They were raised by dugongs and hear the same strange calls from the sea as she does.

Ruka's dad and the other adults who work at the aquarium are only distantly aware of what the children are experiencing as they get caught up in the mystery of the worldwide disappearance of the oceans' fish.

Igarashi launched the manga in Shogakukan's IKKI magazine in 2007, and ended it in 2011. Shogakukan published five compiled book volumes for the manga, and Viz Media published all five volumes in English. The manga earned nominations and awards of excellence from the 38th Japan Cartoonist Awards, the American Library Association's Young Adult Library Services Association, the School Library Journal, and the 13th Japan Media Arts Festival Awards.

Sources: TOHO's YouTube channel, Comic Natalie