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AKB48's Mayuyu to Star, Sing Theme for Nerawareta Gakuen Anime Film (Updated)

Mayu Watanabe (AKB0048), a member of the all-female idol group AKB48 who is known by her nickname "Mayuyu," will both star as the character Natsuki (far right in image) and sing the theme song for the anime film adaptation of Taku Mayumura's science-fiction children's novel Nerawareta Gakuen. The name of the theme song will be announced at a later date.

Yuutaro Motoshiro (Eureka 7: Astral Ocean's Ao Fukai) will co-star in the film as Natsuki's childhood friend Kenji (second from right in image).

Sunrise's Studio 8 (My-HiME, Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere, Accel World) is producing the adaptation with director Ryosuke Nakamura (Mōryō no Hako, Aoi Bungaku Series). supercell will perform the opening theme song. The Cinema Today website began streaming a teaser video for the film in June.

The film is slated for release in Japan on November 10. The Scotland Loves Animation event will host the film's world premiere in Edinburgh between October 19-21. The event's website describes the "new interpretation" of Mayumura's novel as follows:

Spring marks the start of another new school year at a junior high school in Kamakura. A new transfer student, Ryoichi Kyogoku joins the 8th grade. Kyogoku has a very special proficiency in telepathy and has been ordered by his father to use this ability to scan other people's minds and take over the school.

He instantly gains popularity at school from his good looks and charisma and he sets about taking control of the school. As people begin to fall under Kyogoku's spell, he covertly manipulates his followers and pushes aside anyone who gets in his way.

With the school almost completely under the control of Kyogoku, only one boy seems unaffected – Seki. Does Seki have what it takes to save everyone from the clutches of mind control?

Mayumura has written scores of novels, and some of them — Manie-Manie Meikyu Monogatari (Neo-Tokyo) and Toki no Tabibito -Time Stranger- — have inspired earlier anime films. The Nerawareta Gakuen novel already inspired four live-action television adaptations and two live-action films, but Sunrise's film will be the first anime adaptation.

Update: A manga version of the upcoming film began serialization in the 12th issue of Kadokawa Shoten's Newtype Ace magazine on August 10. Tatsuru Ishikawa is drawing the manga (pictured below). Source: Comic Natalie

Source: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web

Image © 2012 Mayumura Taku • Kodansha / NERAWARETA GAKUEN Production Committee