Mizuki Tsujimura’s novel Lonely Castle in the Mirror is being made into a movie this year, and the first teaser along with a new visual were released last week. The film’s release date was also announced, along with several cast members and the main voice actress. The announcements were made on the movie’s official website.
Mizuki Tsujimura has two other stories to her name. She wrote the story behind the manga A School Frozen in Time, which was published in 2004 and well received. Her next novel, Anime Supremacy, was published in 2014 to even better reviews. It also became a live-action movie in 2022. Lonely Castle in the Mirror is her most recent work, published in 2017 and again receiving good reviews. Her works have all been translated and sold internationally.
Lonely Castle in the Mirror is the first of Tsujimura’s works to become an anime film. The novel originally won the Japan Booksellers’ Award in 2018, and was even adapted into a manga by Tomo Taketomi from 2019 to 2022. The anime film is being produced by A-1 Pictures, and is directed by Keiichi Hara (famous for his work on Doraemon and Crayon Shin-chan). Not much information on the film had been released before this first teaser dropped.
Lonely Castle in the Mirror is the story of seven students who escape to a magical castle through their mirrors every day to avoid going to school, where they are tasked with finding a key that will grant the finder a wish. They have to leave the castle by 5pm or risk being eaten by the castle’s queen. It’s a story about friendship, vulnerability, and learning to rely on others. It’s also a mystery story, and the plot unfolds with a lot of twists and turns.
The teaser and new information for the movie revealed the main character Kokoro will be voiced by a new voice actress, Ami Tōma. This will be her first role. The script is being written by Miho Maruo (The Wonderland) and Keigo Sasaki (The Seven Deadly Sins, ERASED) serves as the character designer and chief animator.
As this is the first of Tsujimura’s works to be adapted to an anime film, it’s hard to predict how it will go. Her stories have done really well in novel and manga format, so hopefully, they will translate well to the screen. It’s also nice to see an anime film by a new writer and not based on a TV anime, but instead bringing a fresh, new story to the big screen.
Lonely Castle in the Mirror will release in Japanese cinemas on December 23, 2022.
Source: AnimeNewsNetwork