Image via Kitarō Tanjō: Gegege no Nazo’s website
©水木プロ・フジテレビ・東映アニメーション
The anime film Kitarō Tanjō: Gegege no Nazo (Kitarō Birth: The Mystery of Gegege) ranked third in its fourth week of release. The film sold 166,300 tickets and earned 248,932,300 yen (about $1.70 million) from Friday to Sunday. The film sold 810,000 tickets and grossed a total of 1,150,040,030 yen (about US$7.89 million).
The film opened in Japan on November 17 last year and sold 111,500 tickets and earned 160,106,620 yen (about US$1.07 million) in the first three parts. day.
Gou Koga (Gegege no Kitarō: Nippon Bakuretsu!!, One Piece Episode of Sabo) directed the series at Toei Animation and Hiroyuki Yoshino (Macross Frontier, World Trigger, 2018’s 13-episode GeGeGe no Kitarō) wrote the script. Touko Yatabe (GeGeGe no Kitarō 2018 third ending director, Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time assistant director) designed the characters. The main cast includes Toshihiko Seki as Kitarō’s father, who later becomes Medama Oyaji, and Hidenobu Kikuchi as Mizuki, a salaryman who comes to a cursed village under secret orders.
The film is part of four “major projects” commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Shigeru Mizuki. Mizuki passed away in 2015, at the age of 93. Another project is the new Akuma Kun anime that premiered on Netflix on November 9.
© 2023映画 「翔んで埼玉」製作委員会
The live-action sequel Tonde Saitama ~Biwako Yori Ai o Komete~ (Fly Me to Saitama: From Lake Biwa With Love) dropped from #1 to #4 in its third weekend. The film sold 133,100 tickets and earned 189,226,490 yen (about $1.29 million) from Friday to Sunday. The film sold a total of 1.07 million tickets and earned a cumulative total of 1,477,416,330 yen (about 10.14 million USD)
The film opened on November 24 and ranked No. 1. The film sold 292,300 tickets and earned 415,361,850 yen (about US$2.80 million) from Friday to Sunday in its opening weekend. screened and sold 444,500 tickets to earn 629,616,310 yen (about US$4.25 million) in its first four days, including Thursday. (Thursday, November 23 is Labor Thanksgiving Day in Japan.)
The film was delayed from its original planned release last year. The staff paused production following lead actor Gackt’s announcement of an indefinite hiatus in September 2021. The hiatus was due to an early-onset neurological disease that was progressing into a life-threatening condition,” leading to dysphonia (language disorder). voice). Gackt announced in May 2022 that he was gradually recovering physically, and production on the film resumed in October 2022.
The film’s sequel focuses on the second phase of the “Japan Saitamization Plan” led by the Saitama Liberation Front. Rei Asami (Gackt) and Momomi Dannoura (Nikaidō). In search of more freedom and peace, the group heads to the Kansai region to the west, where an incident between east and west will spark a fierce battle.
The first Tonde Saitama (Fly Me to Saitama) film opened in Japan in February 2019. The film sold 191,000 tickets for 259,038,800 yen (about 2.33 million USD) in its opening weekend and topped the Japanese box office.
© TOHO CO., LTD.
Godzilla Minus One, Takashi Yamazaki’s new film in TOHO’s Godzilla franchise, dropped from #2 to #5 in its sixth weekend. The film earned 205,212,900 yen (about $1.47 million) from Friday to Sunday. The film sold a total of 2.7 million tickets with a cumulative total of 4,154,477,440 yen (about 28.51 million USD).
Godzilla Minus One opens in Japan on November 3, 2023 (“Godzilla Day”), which is the anniversary of the first Godzilla film released on November 3, 1954. The film was recently screened at the Film Festival Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) as the closing film of this year’s event on November 1.
The film sold 648,600 tickets for 1,041,193,460 yen (about US$6.93 million) in its first three showings. date available at the Japanese box office. The film sold 14.7% more tickets and earned 22.8% more in its first three days than the last Japanese live-action Godzilla film, Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi’s Shin Godzilla, did. made it in the first three days of 2016.
Ryunosuke Kamiki plays the main character Kōichi Shikishima, and Minami Hamabe plays the female lead Noriko Ōishi. (Both also starred in NHK’s weekday morning drama Ranman.) Other cast members include Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Andō, and Kuranosuke Sasaki.
The film opened in US theaters on December 1 and earned US$11,419,975 in its first three days and ranked 3rd at the US box office in its opening weekend. The film had the highest opening weekend for a foreign film in the United States this year, surpassing Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Swordsmith Village Arc’s $10.1 million opening weekend in March. The film became the highest-grossing Japanese live-action film in North America.
Yamazaki is the director and screenwriter, and is also credited for the visual effects. Yamazaki primarily directed live-action films, including Always: Sunset on Third Street, Returner and Parasyte, but also directed CG films such as Stand By Me Doremon.
Image via the website of the cartoon Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window
© 黒柳徹子/2023 映画 「窓ぎわのトットちゃん」製作委員会
Shinei Animation The anime film based on the autobiographical memoir Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window (Madoigwa no Totto-chan) by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi ranked 6th in its opening weekend in Japan. The film earned 131,730,130 yen (about $904,100) in its first three days of release. The film opened in Japan last Friday.
Kuroyanagi’s memoir tells the story of going to school at Tomoe Gakuen, after not fitting in at her original elementary school. She meets special students and learns new things at school, even as Japan falls into war. Kuroyanagi published the book in Japan in 1981 and became a bestseller the following year. It became required reading for Japanese elementary school students in the 1980s and was also translated into English and many other languages worldwide.
Seven-year-old Liliana Ohno stars in the film as main character Totto-chan.
Shinnosuke Yakuwa (Eiga Doremon: Shin Nobita no Daimakyō-Peko to 5-nin no Tankentai, Doremon the Movie: Nobita and the Birth of Japan 2016, Doremon the Movie: Nobita’s Chronicle of the Moon Exploration) directed the film at Shinei Animation . and he also wrote the script with Yōsuke Suzuki (Pazudora). Shizue Kaneko (Monster Strike The Movie, Adachi and Shimamura, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord) designed the characters.
©2022 鴨志田 一/KADOKAWA/青ブタ Project
Rascal Doesn’t Dream of a Kid with a Backpack, the second of two films in the sequel anime project to the light novel series Seishun Buta Yarō (Rascal Does Not Dream), dropped from 4th to 8th place this week. premiered Monday. The film earned 66,100,040 yen (about US$453,900) from Friday to Sunday and has earned a total of 271,050,294 yen (about US$1.86 million).
The film ranked at number 4 in its opening weekend. The film sold 119,000 tickets and earned 164,594,554 yen (about US$1.11 million) in its first three days of release.
The film opened in Japan last Friday. The film is the conclusion of the high school story. Sōichi Masui returned to direct the film at CloverWorks, and Masahiro Yokotani again supervised and wrote the script. Satomi Tamura also returned to design the characters and served as animation director.
The next anime project adapts the eighth and ninth novels in the series: Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venture Out and Rascal Does Not Dream of a Backpack Kid. Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister ventured out in Japan on June 23. The film sold 118,108 tickets in the first three days and earned 175,648,924 yen (about $1.28 million) to rank fourth. in the first week of release.
The novel’s “college student arc” is inspiring an anime adaptation.
Eiga Sumikko Gurashi: Tsugihagi Kōjo no Fushigi na Ko (Mysterious Child of the Makeshift Factory), the third anime film for San-X’s Sumikko Gurashi franchise, dropped out of the top 10 in its sixth weekend of release. .
Kōkaku Kidōtai SAC_2045 Saigo no Ningen (Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 The Last Human), a compilation film for the anime The second season of the Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 anime, ranked #1 on the small cinema chart in its third week of release. The movie opens on November 23.