The new two-part theatrical adaptation of Haikara-san ga Tooru from Waki Yamamoto is moving right along in the production phase as the first film was recently set for a November 11th, 2017 debut in Japan, though the official site now just lists 2017. With that in mind, Warner Bros. Japan revealed at Anime Expo that they’re intending to bring it out, presumably more on the art house/limited run circuit, in North America. Dates have not been set for it yet but it would be welcome to see WB Japan working with the US side more in bringing some of these things out in limited event runs or through things like Fathom to get some solid one-night events out there.
The Japanese includes Saori Hayami as Benio Hanamura, Mamoru Miyano as Shinobu Ijuin, Takahiro Sakurai as Tosei Aoe, Kazuya Nakai as Shingo Onijima, Yuki Kaji as Ranmaru Fujieda, and Asami Seto as Tamaki Kitakouji.
The original manga was serialized in Shoujo Friend and had eight compiled volumes originally before getting a four-volume bunko edition. Here’s hoping Kodansha USA will take a chance on bringing out the bunko version here to help celebrate.
Waki has been creating manga for fifty years this year and it serves as a great anniversary present of sorts for her and longtime older fans out there. The property previously received an anime TV series back in 1978 but it ended abruptly along the way. it had a follow-up of a couple of live-action shows and a theatrical film in the years since.
Plot Concept: Benio Hanamura is a 17-year-old schoolgirl in Tokyo during the Taisho era. Benio lost her mother when she was very young and has been raised by her father, a high-ranking official in the Japanese army. As a result, she has grown into a tomboy—contrary to traditional Japanese notions of femininity, she studies kendo, drinks sake, dresses in often outlandish-looking Western fashions, and isn’t as interested in housewife duties as she is in literature. She also rejects the idea of arranged marriages and believes in a woman’s right to a career and to marry for love. Benio’s best friends are the beautiful Tamaki, who is much more feminine than Benio but equally interested in women’s rights, and Ranmaru, a young man who was raised to play female roles in the kabuki theater and as a result has acquired very effeminate mannerisms.
