Toei Animation's next movies
Clannad, Yes! Precure 5, One Piece, Rose of Versailles among titles
Toei Animation has a whole slew of titles coming out in the next year, including a remake of Rose of Versailles, and a movie based on the Pretty Cure anime series.
(Source: www.icv2.com)
Toei Animation announced its upcoming slate of anime movies in its financial presentation, held on May 19th.
The first flick is a feature film adaptation of the visual novel/dating sim Clannad (no, not the award-winning Irish folk/New Age group), which comes out on September 15th. Clannad follows an adolescent boy named Tomoya, whose life was changed following a violent argument with his father. Tomoya dreams of a fantasy world where he meets a mysterious girl, and is reborn into a body made of junk. It's directed by Osamu Dezaki, who also helmed the original The Rose of Versailles.
Toei's next movie, a slightly less sombre affair, bows in November. That's Yes! Precure 5, a feature film based on the insanely popular Pretty Cure magical girl fighting series. It's actually the fourth installment in the series; the 5 in the title refers to the number of members in the team. The TV anime of Precure 5 has been airing on Japan television since February. Considering that Pretty Cure is the most popular anime in this genre since Sailor Moon, it's not surprising that 4Kids has already licensed Yes! Precure 5 for North American distribution.
4Kids has also licensed Eiichiro Oda's One Piece for distribution, recently awarding it to FUNimation, which will bring it uncut to the Cartoon Network in August. However, FUNimation plans to introduce the anime to North American audiences with the 3rd season, instead of going all the way back to the beginning.
For those unfamiliar with the anime, it follows the zany adventures of a rag-tag group of buccaneers, called the Straw Hat Pirates, led by Captain Monkey D. Luffy. Luffy wants to capture the legendary artifact known as the One Piece, which he can use to become the Pirate King. One Piece is widely considered to be the most popular anime/manga in Japan right now, with a whopping 310 episodes to its credit. Toei plans to release a ninth (yes, you read that right) One Piece movie for Japanese audiences in February of 2008.
Speaking of Osamu Dezaki, Toei plans to remake the classic anime/manga series The Rose of Versailles, which originally ran on Japanese television between 1972 and 1973. Also called Lady Oscar, the series follows the adventures of Oscar François de Jarjayes, a woman in pre-Revolutionary France who was raised as a man by her father, since he had no sons.
After becoming commander of the Royal Guard, and responsible for the safekeeping of the flighty Queen Marie Antoinette, Oscar realizes that she loves her childhood friend André. It is at that point that she decides to live her life as a woman. Oscar, realizing that Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are destroying France, later helps the revolutionaries and assists in the Storming of the Bastille.
Toei will resurrect another classic anime/manga series, Shigeru Mizuki's Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro, which originally ran as a manga from 1959 to 1969. It follows the adventures of Kitaro, a young boy who seeks to protect humans from the mischievous Japanese spirit monsters known as yokai.
Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro spawned 5 television series (all produced by Toei), the first in 1968 and the latest started in April of 2007 and is still ongoing. In total, there are 330 episodes of Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro aired on television so far. There have also been 8 movies based on the property.
Fun Fact: Toei Animation is one of Japan's oldest animation studios. It started production in 1956.
