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Lonely Castle in the Mirror Anime Film Teaser Reveals Director, Studio

The official website for the anime film of Mizuki Tsujimura's Lonely Castle in the Mirror (Kagami no Kojō) novel began streaming a teaser trailer for the film on Thursday. The trailer features the voice of the main character for the first time (though it does not reveal the cast), and also reveals that Keiichi Hara (Colorful, Miss Hokusai, The Wonderland) is directing the film at A-1 Pictures.

The teaser also promises more information from the film on July 28.

The film will open in Japan in "winter 2022." (The timeframe for winter theatrical releases in Japan would be at the end of the year.) Shochiku is distributing the film.

Doubleday released the novel in English in April 2021, and it describes the story:

In a tranquil neighbourhood of Tokyo, seven teenagers wake to find their bedroom mirrors are shining.

At a single touch, they are pulled from their lonely lives to a wondrous castle filled with winding stairways, watchful portraits and twinkling chandeliers. In this new sanctuary, they are confronted with a set of clues leading to a hidden room where one of them will be granted a wish. But there's a catch: if they don't leave the castle by five o'clock, they will be punished.

As time passes, a devastating truth emerges: only those brave enough to share their stories will be saved.

Tsujimura released the original novel in Japan in 2017. It won the 2018 Japan Booksellers' Award, topped Da Vinci magazine's Book of the Year list in 2017, and won the grand prize in the King's Brunch Book Prize 2017. Erewhon released a hardcover edition of the English version of the novel on July 5.

Tsujimura's Anime Supremacy! (Haken Anime!) also inspired an upcoming live-action film adaptation that opened on May 20. Vertical released the novel in English in October 2017.

Tsujimura also wrote the story for Naoshi Arakawa's A School Frozen in Time manga, which Vertical released in English. Tsujimura also penned the script for the Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Chronicle of the Moon Exploration anime film in 2019.

Sources: Lonely Castle in the Mirror anime film's website, Comic Natalie