The official Twitter account for Shinei Animation‘s anime film of Tetsuko Kuroyanagi‘s () autobiographical memoir unveiled a new promotional video on Tuesday. The trailer highlights Totto-chan’s friendship with a boy, and features a longer version of the film’s theme song “Ano ne” (You Know What?) by Aimyon.
Kuroyanagi’s memoir tells her story of going to school at Tomoe Gakuen, after not fitting at her original elementary school. She meets unique students and learns new things at school, even as Japan descends into war.
Seven-year-old Liliana Ohno stars in the film as protagonist Totto-chan. Other cast members include:
- Kōji Yakusho as Sōsaku Kobayashi, Totto-chan’s principal at Tomoe Gakuen
- Shun Oguri as Moritsuna Kuroyanagi, Totto-chan’s father
- Anne (Anne Watanabe) as Cho Kuroyanagi, Totto-chan’s mother
- Karen Takizawa as Miss Oishi, Totto-chan’s homeroom teacher
Shinnosuke Yakuwa (, , ) is directing the film at Shinei Animation. and he is also penning the script alongside Yōsuke Suzuki (). Shizue Kaneko (, , ) is designing the characters.
The film will open in Japan on December 8.
Kuroyanagi published the book in Japan in 1981, where it became a bestseller over the next year. It became required reading for Japanese elementary school students in the 1980s, and was also translated in English and many other languages worldwide.
Sources: anime film’s Twitter account, TOHO‘s YouTube channel
