Anime streaming giant Crunchyroll has acquired worldwide (excluding Asia) distribution and marketing rights for award-winning Japanese director Makoto Shinkai’s upcoming anime feature film. Suzume No Tojimari.
The coming-of-age tale marks a sixth anime feature for Shinkai following major international hits your name (2016) and Grow old with you (2019).
The feature is produced by CoMix Wave Films, the Tokyo animation studio behind many of Shinkai’s works, and Story Inc., which took credits on Grow old with you.
The deal between Crunchyroll and Japanese studio Toho, which handles global rights, was brokered by French sales giant Wild Bunch International (WBI).
Under its terms, Crunchyroll will partner with Sony Pictures and WBI for worldwide distribution of the title. Crunchyroll will distribute the film in North America, while Sony Pictures and WBI will co-distribute in Europe. Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures will handle all other territories outside of Asia
Toho will release the production in Japan on November 11, 2022, and it will then be distributed in all other major territories from early 2023.
“It is with humility and honor that CoMix Wave Films, Makoto Shinkai and Toho have decided to partner with Crunchyroll for the next masterpiece,” said Rahul Purini, President of Crunchyroll, LLC.
“It’s also an incredible opportunity to work with our partners at Sony Pictures Entertainment and Wild Bunch International to co-distribute this film across a wide range of territories. We know that animation fans and the general public will fall in love with this prestigious movie.
Suzume No Tojimari revolves around a 17-year-old protagonist and takes place in various disaster-stricken locations across Japan. Her journey begins in a quiet town on the island of Kyushu in southwestern Japan, where she unwittingly opens a single weathered door amid the ruins, which sets off a chain of destructive events that only she can end.
Shinkai’s 2016 Romantic Fantasy Drama your name was a huge hit at home, earning the second highest grossing for a local film after that of Hayao Miyazaki Taken away as if by magic and enjoying a high-profile international career to gross over $300 million worldwide.
His follow-up 2019 grow old with you was also a commercial success at home and abroad. It was later selected as Japan’s entry in the Best International Feature Film category of the 2020 Academy Awards and was nominated in four categories at the 47th Annual Annie Awards, including Best Independent Animated Feature Film.
WBI has a long and successful track record of working with Japanese animation, having previously handled international sales of Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away and all of his subsequent films as well as, more recently, Earwig and the Witchthe third solo feature film by Miyazaki’s son, Gorô Miyazaki.
“We consider Makoto Shinkai to be a major artist with whom we have wanted to work for a long time. He is a talented director whom we welcome to our family of filmmakers and we are proud to be able to bring his vision to the world of cinema everywhere,” said WBI President Vincent Maraval.
