News

Yutaka Yamamoto's Hakubo Anime Unveils New Visual, Theme Song Artist

The official website for director Yutaka Yamamoto's original anime project Hakubo (Twilight) revealed a new visual for the anime on Friday. The site also revealed on Wednesday that Azuma Hitomi will perform the film's theme song "Tooku" (Far).

The anime was previously slated for 2018 before being delayed to 2019. The anime will now open at Porepore Cinemas Iwaki Onahama in Fukushima Prefecture on May 24, then screen elsewhere in Fukushima before getting a larger countrywide release.

The anime previously had a Japanese Campfire crowdfunding campaign to fund the initial project. The project met its goal of 15 million yen (about US$137,000) in April 2017. Yamamoto recently launched a Kickstarter campaign in order to create English subtitles and expand the anime's theatrical premiere in Fukushima. The campaign seeks to raise 5 million yen (US$45,329) by March 31. As of press time, the campaign has raised US$10,886.

Yamamoto (also known as Yamakan) himself is credited with the original work, script, direction, and sound direction. Sunao Chikaoka (Wake Up, Girls!) is designing the characters and is also the chief animation director. Merrill Macnaut is the art director, Fuyuto Muraguchi is handling the color design, and Yō Yamada (Black Bullet) is in charge of sound production. Sōhei Kano (Fractale) is composing the music. Twilight Studio is in charge of animation.

The cast includes Hiyori Sakurada, Seishirō Katō, Hiro Shimono, Ayane Sakura, Kana Hanazawa, Kaori Fukuhara, Sumi Shimamoto, and Sora Amamiya.

Yamamoto is planning the anime as the last of his self-described "Tōhoku trilogy" set in Japan's Tōhoku region in the northeast. Hakubo in particular follows youths living in "the now and present" in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture after the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011. (The previous two Tōhoku projects, blossom and Wake Up, Girls!, were set in the town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture and Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, respectively.)

Yamamoto said that he first conceived of the project's initial concept two decades ago when he was in college. When he mulled over what would be a good perspective to depict Fukushima, he recalled this idea from his past and set it in Tōhoku.

Yamamoto has posted his original novel that inspired the anime online.

Sources: Hakubo film's website, Comic Natalie