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The theme song performers for the spring 2025 TV anime The Too-Perfect Saint: Tossed Aside by My Fiancé and Sold to Another Kingdom both posted their respective opening and ending theme music videos on their official YouTube channels, following the anime's premiere on April 2. Singer-songwriter Riria. sings the anime's opening theme song "Aitoka." ("Something Like Love"). She newly wrote the song with the anime's protagonist, Philia, in mind and released the song digitally on April 10. The music video was directed by Seishiro Ishida, known for his music video works for Kana-boon and Ikimionogakari . The video depicts the friendship and love between the two women played by Sena Nakajima and Saki Miyashita. Riria. "Aitoka" Music Video The Too-Perfect Saint: Tossed Aside by My Fiancé and Sold to Another Kingdom Creditless Opening Video Riria. artist photo Singer Won then provided the ending theme song "Sister." As its title suggests, this song was written...

The official website for the upcoming live-action film adaptation of Tsubasa Yamaguchi's coming-of-age manga Blue Period released a 90-second main trailer today on May 28. It is also announced that the film's theme song "Noise" is provided by solo artist WurtS , and the song is featured in the trailer for the first time. WurtS began experimentally releasing songs on YouTube and TikTok in 2020, and has gained immense popularity among young people, with over 400 million total streams. "Originally, 'Noise' was born from a feeling of wanting to break out of my shell that I had when I first started my music career. When I received the offer from the Blue Period film, I felt a link between this feeling and Yatora's state of mind, and started to write the song," said WurtS. "I also had the time when what started as a 'like' somehow turned into an expression of myself,...

After a sluggish start to a wild premise, the streaming series Dragons of Wonderhatch (or Wonderhatch: Soratobu Ryu no Shima), completed the 8-episode run of its first season at a middling pace and left its conclusion open-ended. With C&i Entertainment on the live-action front and Production I.G taking care of the anime sections, Kentaro Hagiwara and Takashi Otsuka share directorial duties for their respective departments. The Ona (Original Net Animation) from Disney+ also features both acting chops and voice acting of Daiken Okudaira as Thaim, Mackenyu as Aktha, Morita Go as Supes, and Sumire as Saira as series lead Sena Nakajima appears only in live-action as Nagi with Yoshito Emmanuelle as Mame beside her, and Tsuda Kenjiro guest-starring as Jairo.

Since the inception of movies as a medium for entertainment, animation has been the go-to for directors to bring fantasy to life. What began as stop-motion art in Émile Cohl...

Dragons of Wonderhatch is now available on Hulu and Disney+.

Dragons of Wonderhatch is Disney's first project to combine live-action with Japanese animation. Since the series features mythical creatures that travel back and forth from the fantasy world to our "real world," the show also utilizes a combination of 2D and 3D animation. As detailed on Anime News Network, Production I.G. developed the series' animated segments, while C&i Entertainment (live-action Rurouni Kenshin) oversaw production on the live-action portions.

Related Best Romance Anime On Hulu (November 2023) Between Your Lie In April, Sailor Moon, and Sword Art Online, Hulu is home to some of the best romance anime ever.

Dragons of Wonderhatch revolves around a Nagi, a fantasy-loving high school girl that longs to live in a more exciting world. In an alternate realm called Upanata, people live alongside dragons, taming and training them as Dragon Riders. One day, a boy named...

“Dragons of Wonderhatch” is a new live-action/animation hybrid TV series, directed by Kentaro Hagiwara and Takashi Otsuka, starring Sena Nakajima, Daiken Okudaira, Rena Tanaka, Masaki Miura, Riko Narumi, Sumire, Go Morita and Mackenyu, streaming December 20, 2023 on Hulu and Disney+:

‘…born with the ability of ‘sound-color synesthesia’, that allows her to see colors when she hears certain sounds, ‘Nagi’ has spent her entire life feeling like she doesn’t belong.

“Dreaming of one day being able to fly, Nagi will soon come face to face with ‘Thaim’, another ‘misfit’ from a different world. Born in ‘Upananta’, Thaim has long been treated like an outcast for his inability to hear the voices of the dragons that inhabit his land. With the floating islands of Upananta slowly beginning to fall from the sky, the two will set off on an epic adventure spanning both live-action and animated worlds…”

Click the images to enlarge…...

Fans can now get a better look at Disney's Dragons of Wonderhatch, which is set to premiere later on this year.

Disney+ released a new teaser trailer of its live-action/anime hybrid Dragons of Wonderhatch on Oct. 23 via YouTube. The description of the TV series reads: "The real world we live in, depicted in live-action, and a fantasy world with dragons, depicted in anime, brought by Disney+! This completely new story that no one has seen before depicts two worlds, Yokosuka in live-action and the dragon fantasy world Upananta in anime." The teaser showcases two of the main leads -- the Japanese schoolgirl Nagi and the dragon rider from another world, Tyme.

Related: 15 Best Live-Action Anime Adaptations

The latest teaser confirms new additions to the cast from the earlier trailer released this year, which include Rena Tanaka, Masami Miura, Riko Narumi and Sumire. Tanaka joins as Nagi's mother, Hana, while Miura joins as Nagi's father.

Disney+ has announced a slate of Asia originals for the second half of 2023, including Korean dramas Moving and The Worst Of Evil and the latest project in its collaboration with Hybe, BTS Monuments: Beyond The Star.

The packed slate of originals also includes Japanese anime Tokyo Revengers: Teknik Arc, part of Disney’s collaboration with publishing house Kodansha, and hybrid live-action and anime series Dragons Of Wonderhatch.

Set to premiere on August 9, Korean drama Moving is based on Kangfull’s webtoon about a group of superpowered individuals on the run from government forces and a mysterious assassin. Ryu Seungryong, Han Hyojoo and Zo Insung head the cast.

Ji Changwook, Squid Game actor Wi Hajun and Lim Semi star in crime drama The Worst Of Evil, set in 1990s Seoul, where a rural police officer is recruited to help bring down a trafficking gang pushing a potent new drug.

Docu-series BTS...

When you hear what We Are Little Zombies is about, the concept that it could have more than a little bit of influence from the world of video-games may come as a shock. After all, the story of a quartet of kids bonding over the mutual loss of their parents is hardly something that suggests 8-bit fun. However, it’s a credit to writer/director Makoto Nagahisa that it somehow just makes sense. Now, this may not be for everyone, but if the unusual marriage of content and style, filtered through a singular tone, works for you, this is going to really float your boat. The film is a mix of drama and dramedy elements, telling the story of four children going through something both terrible and also fairly stirring. Hikari (Keita Ninomiya), Ikuko (Sena Nakajima), Ishi (Satoshi Mizuno), and Takemura (Mondo Okumura) first meet, they’ve each just become orphans.

Like a miniature version of Camus' Meursault, Hikari (Keita Ninomiya) fails to cry at his parents' funeral. "Reality is stupid," he says impatiently. They never paid him much attention anyway so he's no stranger to making his way through life alone. It's his good fortune that he will no longer have to do so, because that day, at the crematorium, he meets three other children who have recently been orphaned and they decide to run away together to have adventures.

Bold Takemura (Mondo Okumura) comes from a troubled background where he had plenty of ugliness to deal with before his parents' suicide, but also a punk older brother from whom he learned guitar. Ikuko (Sena Nakajima), possessed of a stare that could wither whole forests and with zero tolerance for the creepy adult attention it attracts, is a piano protege who relishes her newfound freedom. Ishi (Satoshi Mizuno) is a wide-eyed,...

"We're zombies. We're dead. We're dying. But we're alive. I don't know which... So we might as well do what we want." Oscilloscope Labs has debuted an official Us trailer for a funky fun Japanese experimental indie drama titled We Are Little Zombies, a very dark comedy rock musical one-of-a-kind film. This first premiered at the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals last year, and will be getting a Us release later in the year. The film is about four kids whose parents have all died, and they come together to form a rock band. "Tragedy, comedy, music, social criticism, and teenage angst are all subsumed in this eccentric cinematic tsunami." Starring Keita Ninomiya, Satoshi Mizuno, Mondo Okumura, and Sena Nakajima as the four main kids. This kind of became an under-the-radar hit on the festival circuit last year, and it's getting a proper release sometime this year - keep an eye out for it soon.

Stars: Satoshi Mizuno, Sena Nakajima, Keita Ninomiya, Mondo Okumura | Written and Directed by Makoto Nagahisa

Directed and with a screenplay penned by Makoto Nagahisa, in his feature-film debut as both writer and man-in-the-chair, We Are Little Zombies is a Japanese drama film about four teenage orphans who form a rock band.

There is a lot, and I mean A Lot, going on with the film, and while I didn’t mind that (and in fact enjoyed how crazy it became at times) I think the sheer rapid and packed style of it could irk some viewers. There are slow moments, moments that take their time and build up the story in a less musical way, and these help calm things down, giving us foundations for our leads. It is the ingenious and bloody brilliant way that the film deals with the stages of grief. We’ve seen films deal with the topic before,...

No pulsating, psychedelic, pop-punk phantasmagoria ought to be as moving and smart as “We Are Little Zombies.” But Makoto Nagahisa’s explosively ingenious and energetic debut (imagine it as the spiritual offspring of Richard Lester and a Harajuku Girl) holds the high score for visual and narrative invention, as well as boasting a [insert gigantic-beating-heart Gif] and braaaains, too. The gonzo adventures of four poker-faced Japanese 13-year-olds who bond over their mutual lack of emotion following sudden orphanhood, it reimagines the old “stages of grief” thing as a progression through 13 erratic levels of a video game, complete with mini-games and side quests. And if its manic, 8-bit aesthetic seems hyperactively inappropriate for such a somber scenario — like it does grief wrong — that too, can be interpreted as a generous insight into the mourning process: Who among us, upon being bereaved, has ever believed they’re doing grief right?

Certainly, little Hikari (Keita Ninomiya) does not.

We Are Little Zombies

Japan’s Makoto Nagahisa makes his directorial debut with We Are Little Zombies, produced by Shinichi Takahashi, Tahei Tamanishi, Haruki Yokoyama, and Haruhiko Hasegawa. The project is also the feature debut of Dp Hiroaki Takeda, who worked on Nagahisa’s award winning 2017 short “And So We Put Goldfish in the Pool” and a cast of newcomers includes Keita Ninomiya, Satoshi Mizuno, Mondo Okumura, and Sena Nakajima who are joined by Rinko Kikucho and Yuki Kudo. Nagahisa was the Short Film Grand Prize Jury Winner at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

Gist: Written by Makoto Nagahisa, We Are Little Zombies turns on four 13-year-olds whose parents die and they form a band (which sounds similar to something like Lukas Moodysson’s 2013 title We Are the Best).…...