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Odex Film Festival in Philippines Screens 3 Anime Films, 1 Live-Action Film in November
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Odex announced that it will hold its film festival event in the Philippines on November 23 and 24. The event will screen the Anemone: Kōkyōshihen Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution (Anemone: Eureka Seven: Hi - Evolution), Gintama 2: Rules are Meant to be Broken, Natsume Yujin-cho the Movie: Ephemeral Bond, and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Detonation films.
Anemone: Kōkyōshihen Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution, the second film in the Eureka Seven: Hi - Evolution film trilogy, will open in Japan on November 10.
For the first time in the Eureka Seven franchise, the film will be set in Tokyo. The film centers on Anemone, a girl who lost her father in a battle in Toyko seven years prior to the film's story, leaving her with only her stuffed toy Gulliver, and the AI concierge Dominikids for emotional support. Now she is a key part of a strategy by the experimental unit "Acid" to combat the seventh Eureka, "Eureka Seven," an enemy of humanity that has killed 2.6 billion people. Driven to the brink, all of humanity entrusts its hope to Anemone as she dives deep into the interior of Eureka Seven.
The staff remains mostly the same as the first film, but adds Takuhito Kusanagi and Fumihiro Katagai as designers. Shigeru Fujita and Ayumi Kurashima remain credited as character animation director, but are now also credited as sub-character designers. Kenta Yokoya is now credited as mechanical animation director and design works, while previous mechanical animation director Shingo Abe is now credited as one of the main animators, alongside Hideki Kakita, Shuichi Kaneko, Ken Ootsuka, and Nobuaki Nagano.
The first film in the trilogy opened on 107 screens in Japan last September. In its first two days, it raised about 63 million yen (about US$561,137).
Gintama 2: Rules are Meant to be Broken (Gintama 2: Okite wa Yaburu Tame ni Koso Aru), the second live-action film based on Hideaki Sorachi's Gintama manga, opened in Japan on August 17 in 345 theaters. The film earned over 800 million yen (about US$7.27 million) in its first three days to rank #1 in its opening weekend. As of October 7, the film has earned more than 3,566,060,100 yen (about US$31.56 million).
The film's story covers both the "Shinsengumi Crisis" and the "Shogun Reception" arcs, the latter of which features the introduction of the Shogun. The film stars Shun Oguri as Gintoki Sakata, Masaki Suda as Shinpachi Shimura, Kanna Hashimoto as Kagura, Masami Nagasawa as Tae Shimura, and Masaki Okada as Kotarō Katsura.
The first film opened in Japan in July 2017, and it earned 980 million yen (US$8.9 million) in its first four days. Various local distributors opened the film in the Philippines, Singapore, and Indonesia last year.
Natsume Yujin-cho the Movie: Ephemeral Bond (Natsume Yūjinchō ~Utsusemi ni Musubu~), the anime film of Yuki Midorikawa's Natsume's Book of Friends (Natsume Yūjin-Chō) manga, topped the Japanese box office rankings in its opening weekend on September 29-30, selling 117,473 tickets to earn 172,144,780 yen (about US$1.5 million). The movie is projected to earn over 1 billion yen (about US$8.7 million). The film has earned a cumulative total of 725,058,820 yen (about US$6.43 million) as of October 21.
The film features a returning cast. In addition, Kengo Kora plays Mukuo Tsumura, a young man whom Natsume meets and befriends. Sumi Shimamoto plays Yorie Tsumura, Mukuo's mother. Ayumu Murase plays Daisuke Yūki, Natsume's schoolmate from elementary school. Viking comedy duo member Eiji Kotōge plays Monmonbō, a yōkai who has come to take its name back from Natsume. Viking comedy duo member Mizuki Nishimura plays Roppon-ude, a six-armed yōkai who aims to take Natsume's book.
Midorikawa supervised the film's original story. Animation studio Shuka returned from the television anime's fifth and sixth seasons to animate the film. Takahiro Ōmori again served as chief director, but Hideki Ito was the new director. Sadayuki Murai again handled series composition, Tatsuo Yamada returned for yōkai design, and Makoto Yoshimori again composed the music. Uru performed the film's theme song "remember."
The Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Detonation anime film opened in Japan on October 19, and it ranked at #6 in its opening weekend. Nana Mizuki performed the film's theme song "Never Surrender." The film's website previously teased that the film delves into the history between Iris and Yuri, and the tragedy of Eltoria's "Planet Reclamation Committee."
The film's new cast includes Kōichi Yamadera as the unnamed head of the Planet Reclamation Committee, Eiji Miyashita as Andy Penton, and Yumiko Ōfuku as Jessica Waverly.
The first film in the two-film project, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Reflection, opened in Japan in July 2017. Odex screened the film theatrically in Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, and Thailand last year.
Masaki Tsuzuki, the franchise creator and scriptwriter, is credited with the original work, and also penned the scripts of both films. Takayuki Hamana (The Prince of Tennis, Library War, Appleseed XIII) directed the first film at Seven Arcs Pictures, and both returned for the second film. Kana Hashidate (Dog Days') drew the character designs, and Shochiku is distributing the films.
