Seto plays protagonist Masamune’s father, Hayashi voices uncle
The staff for Mari Okada and MAPPA‘s original anime film Alice to Therese no Maboroshi Kōjō (Alice and Therese’s Illusory Factory) announced on Thursday two cast members. The newly announced cast includes:
Koji Seto as Akimune Kikuiri (character name spellings are not confirmed), the protagonist Masamune’s father who works at a steel mill
©新見伏製鐵保存会
Kento Hayashi as Tokimune Kikuiri, Masamune’s uncle who also works at the steel mill
©新見伏製鐵保存会
This is actor Seto’s first time playing an anime voice. This also marks Hayashi’s first voiceover in a MAPPA work, and his second voice role in an anime. His first role was Aigami in the Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions anime film.
©新見伏製鐵保存会
©新見伏製鐵保存会
The film will premiere on September 15, and will star Junya Enoki as 14-year-old protagonist Masamune Kikuiri, Reina Ueda as Masamune’s classmate Atsumi Sagami, and Misaki Kuno as the mysterious girl Itsumi (character name spellings are not confirmed).
The film centers on third-year middle school student Masamune, who lives in a town where time has stopped because a sudden explosion at a steelworks factory has sealed off all exits to the town. In order to hopefully one day return to normal, the residents of the town are forbidden from changing, and they live out their gloomy everyday lives. Masamune’s enigmatic classmate Atsumi leads him one day to the fifth blast furnace of the steelworks factory, and there they meet a girl who is wild like a wolf and who cannot talk. The meeting of Masamune and these two girls upsets the balance of the world. The unstoppable “love impulse” of the boys and girls who are tired of their everyday lives begins to destroy the world.
Okada is writing and directing the film, which MAPPA originally announced in 2021. Okada is also credited with the original work. Okada also wrote a novel of the film that Kadokawa Bunko released on June 13.
Tadashi Hiramatsu is serving as the assistant director, and Yuriko Ishii (Another, Persona -trinity soul-) is designing the characters and serving as chief animation director. Kazuki Higashiji (Angel Beats!, Hanasaku Iroha – Blossoms for Tomorrow, The Piano Forest) is directing the art. All of the above animators collaborated on Okada’s Maquia – When the Promised Flower Blooms film. Masaru Yokoyama (Her Blue Sky, Horimiya) is composing the music. Warner Bros. is distributing the film.
Singer-songwriter Miyuki Nakajima is performing the film’s theme song titled “Shin-on” (Heartbeat). This is the first time that the veteran singer has performed a theme song for any anime or game. (Nakajima’s songs have appeared in other anime’s soundtracks, and she wrote songs for Cosmowarrior Zero and Space Battleship Yamato 2199 for other singers.) Okada personally asked Nakajima for the theme song last fall. At first, Nakajima wondered about the request since she knows little about anime or games. However, Nakajima became convinced after reading Okada’s script, and created the song specifically for the film.
Source: Press release
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