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'Summer Ghost' Anime Short Opens in Thailand on Thursday
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Japan Anime Movie (JAM) Thailand began streaming a Thai-subtitled trailer last week for "Summer Ghost," the directorial debut of illustrator loundraw (I want to eat your pancreas, Josee, The Tiger and the Fish, Vivy -Fluorite Eye's Song-). The trailer reveals that JAM Thailand will open the short in theaters in Thailand on Thursday.
The short opened in Japan on November 12.
The story of the short developed from a single illustration that loundraw had drawn. Tomoya, Aoi, and Ryō are high school students who met online. An urban legend speaks of a "summer ghost," a spirit girl who appears when fireworks are set off.
Tomoya cannot live the life he envisioned for himself. Aoi cannot find her place in the world. Ryō has his once shining future suddenly pulled away. Each has their own reason for needing to meet the summer ghost. On a summer night when life and death cross paths, where will each of their emotions take them?
In addition to directing, loundraw also drafted the original character designs, and Flat Studio, the studio loundraw established in 2019, animated the short. Hirotaka Adachi, better known as the novelist Otsuichi (Stare film, Goth, Calling You, Zoo), wrote the screenplay. Flagship Line planned and produced the project, and Avex Pictures distributed the film.
In addition to internationally renowned pianist Akira Kosemura, Itoko Toma, Guiano, and Hideya Kojima contributed to the soundtrack.
Yoshi Inomi launched a manga adaptation on the Tonari no Young Jump service on October 8 last year, and its compiled book volume shipped on November 19. The anime's scriptwriter (and acclaimed novelist) Otsuichi wrote a novelization that expands the story, and it shipped on October 29. In addition, the spinoff original novel Ichinose Yūna ga Uiteiru (Yūna Ichinose Is Floating), which picks up the motif of "fireworks and ghosts," shipped on November 26.
The short is part of Project Common, a multimedia initiative "to express the true loundraw." The illustrator said last summer, "Unchanging at any time, I want to find my steadfast self. This project is a challenge to find the true 'loundraw' with myself and everyone." The project's website included the English text "real or fake? The way he thinks, the way he draws. These all become 'one.'"
loundraw drew the original character designs for the Tsuki ga Kirei television anime series, and also provided the original character designs and cover illustration for Yoru Sumino's I want to eat your pancreas novel. The novel has inspired an anime film using his original character designs. loundraw also drew the character designs for the Vivy -Fluorite Eye's Song- anime.
He also drew the character designs for an animated promotional video based on Yusuke Yamada's Boku wa Robot Goshi no Kimi ni Koi wo Suru (I fall in love with you through a robot) novel. The novel is also getting a full animated film adaptation.
