With the Japanese theatrical release of Kenji Kamiyama’s Hirunehime -Shiranai Watashi no Monogatari- out earlier this month, the film is continuing to line up more international plans. Anime Limited previously revealed that they’ll be bringing the film out as Napping Princess -The Story of Unknown Me this summer for UK and Ireland audiences and now we’ve learned that the Anime Limited France division has picked it up for well as distribution there. It’ll be presented in its original Japanese with French subtitles.
The film has Kamiyama working as the director and writing the screenplay for it while Satoko Morikawa is on board as the character designer with Atsuko Sasaki serving as the animation director. It’s being produced by Signal-MD and obviously being distributed by Warner Bros. Japan, which means a lot of solid promotion ahead of us this year.
The Japanese cast includes Mitsuki Takahata as Kokone Morikawa, Shinnosuke Mitsushima as Morio, Arata Furuta as Watanabe, Tomoya Maeno as Kijita, Hideki Takahashi as Isshin Shijima, Rie Kogimiya as Joy and Yosuke Eguchi as Momotarō.
Kamiyama was previously quoted previously as saying about the project, “I had asked myself what an anime film should do in this age when we must face heavy reality. One day, I was told by someone, “Why don’t you make a film that you want to show to your daughter?” Then a story about a simple and innocent girl and her father came up to my mind. But it has been a very difficult work, I have had to work so hard everyday, thinking about how I can show it to my daughter. This is a story about ‘a father and his daughter’ that attaches to the minimum thought of an individual person.”
Plot concept: The story of the film is set in the Kojima area of Okayama Prefecture in 2020, just before the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games begin. It focuses on the relationship between the protagonist girl Kokone Morikawa and her father. The film also features a robot called “Hearts” that can transform from a sidecar.
