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Shogakukan has revealed that a special edition of the 14th volume of Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe’s manga, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, will include a 24-page novella titled ‘Sora ni Hana wo Sakaseru Mahō’ (Magic to Make Flowers Bloom in the Sky). This volume is set to ship on March 18, 2025, in Japan.

The novella is written by Mei Hachimoku, known for ‘The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbye’, and also the writer behind the prequel novel Shōsetsu Sōsō no Frieren

~Zensō~ (Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End the Novel ~Prelude~). Kanehito Yamada, the manga’s creator, supervised the story to ensure it aligned well with the main narrative.

This special edition will come with a hardcover designed to feel like a grimoire, along with three brand-new illustrations by Tsukasa Abe, the manga’s illustrator. These extras make the edition a collectible item for readers who love detailed world-building and art.

Hulu is giving Shark Week a run for its money this July with not one but seven National Geographic specials dropping on the streaming service at the start of the month. From Shark Beach with Anthony Mackie to Baby Sharks in the City, there are plenty of options for fans of these fearsome finned creatures.

Hulu also has a couple of fun offerings for adult animation fans with the full second season of Marvel’s Hit Monkey dropping on July 15 and Futurama returning for its 12th season on July 29th.

There’s not really anything notable in the way of original movies on Hulu this month, but Aliens, Step Brothers, and (500) Days of Summer are just a few of the noteworthy movies joining the library.

Here’s everything that’s coming to (and leaving) Hulu in July.

Hulu New Releases – July 2024

July 1

Attack of the Red Sea Sharks: Special Premiere...

UK distributor Anime Limited and Germany’s Plaion Pictures have acquired UK, France, Italy and Germany rights to the catalogue of Japanese director Mamoru Hosoda.

Three titles have been newly acquired by the two companies: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars and Wolf Children. Plaion Pictures has also picked up The Boy And The Beast for Germany and Italy.

The films join two further Hosoda titles on the slates of Anime and Plaion: Oscar-nominated Mirai, and his most recent film, 2021’s Belle.

The companies are working on a ‘World of Mamoru Hosoda’ theatrical season, releasing one of the...

And while the franchise currently doesn’t have an ongoing anime series, the Digimon franchise is very much active, with numerous non-anime projects being released. But, despite all of that, the highly-anticipated home release of last year’s hit film, Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning, which is set within the original universe and follows the 02 DigiDestined in a new adventure, has been announced for US fans – it is June 11, 2024!

It has been known for a while that the Blu-ray edition of the Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning movie will come out on May 29, 2024 in Japan, and while some fans had been worried about a potentially long(er) wait for the US release, we can confirm that the movie will be released not long after the Japanese edition. Pre-orders are already available on Amazon for $26.98, for which you will get the special Blu-ray+DVD edition.

While the movie is set after the original anime,...

The Anime Trending Awards have been an important anime award for some time now, and what is special about them is that they always reflect the voice of the fans. The awards are given based on how many votes a series receives. On March 10, the winners of the 10th Annual Anime Trending Awards were announced and here is the full list of winners based on the categories:

Anime of the Year: Heavenly Delusion (Production I.G) Anime Movie of the Year: The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes (Clap) Boy of the Year: Guel Jeturk (Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury S2) Girl of the Year: Kana Arima (【Oshi No Ko】) Supporting Boy of the Year: Guel Jeturk (Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury S2) Supporting Girl of the Year: Kana Arima (【Oshi No Ko】) Couple Ship of the Year: Kyoutarou x Anna (The Dangers In My Heart...

Publisher Shogakukan announced a prequel novel adaptation for Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End manga. Titled Shosetsu Soso no Frieren ~Zenso~ (Novel: Soso no Frieren ~Prelude~), it is scheduled for release on April 17, 2024.

Written by Mei Hachimoku, known for her works “The Mimosa Confessions” and “The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbye,” the prequel will delve into the past of the series’ central characters. It will be a collection of five short stories not featured in the original manga, focusing on Frieren, Fern, Stark, Lawine, Kanne, and Aura before their now-familiar journey begins.

Manga author Kanehito Yamada will be supervising the novel adaptation.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is a Japanese manga series written by Kanehito Yamada and illustrated by Tsukasa Abe. It has been serialized in Shogakukan’s shonen manga magazine Weekly Shonen Sunday since April 2020, with its chapters collected in 12 tankobon volumes as of December 2023.

The series is licensed for...

On one hand, while a number of animators and staff members from the anime industry have sternly spoken against the use of AI, anime directors Keiichi Hara and Tomohisa Taguchi, who are veterans in their own right, had an entirely different opinion regarding it.

As reported by Full Frontal, both Hara and Taguchi, who were talking at a panel at this year’s Annecy Festival, believed that AI, which doesn’t complain, get tired or sleep, could be a good tool to replace “lazy animators” and do the work in their place.

This opinion has stirred various sections of fandom, who believed that the directors shouldn’t have made such a comment in light of the recent developments.

Hara was talking about the difficulties of making animated feature films, when the topic shifted to lazy animators “who are being paid without putting in the work that’s expected of them.

In 2019, a light novel, or a kind of book targeted towards young adults, was released in Japan. It was successful enough that a year later, it was serialized in a manga format throughout 2020 and 2021, and it was then licensed and translated for North American audiences to consume on the other side of the world. This series was titled The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes, and now, in 2023 the anime movie is finally ready to be released for North American audiences.

The film originally premiered a year prior, in September 2022, but is only just making its way across the ocean for theatrical distribution. Underneath all the visuals and animation style lies a story that many may have already seen before: two teenagers, dealing with their personal problems, meet in a rural Japanese countryside. After discovering a magical tunnel where their past meets the present, they’re going to learn...

Locally-made fantasy drama “Sleep” headed the Korean box office charts for the third successive weekend. But theaters were comatose ahead of bigger new releases timed for the Chuseok holiday season.

“Sleep” earned just $1.06 million between Friday and Sunday, with a 27.5% market share, according to data from Kobis the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council. Its cumulative after 19 days in cinemas now stands at $9.50 million.

The film’s three weekends at the top of the chart have coincided with low power competition and a month-long decline in cinema attendance. The nationwide box office aggregate for the latest weekend was worth just $3.85 million. That was the quietest box office weekend of 2023.

Korean comedy drama “Marrying the Mafia Returns” released on Thursday and took second place. Over its opening four days it managed $684,000, with $523,000 of that over the weekend proper.

Hollywood import, “Gran Turismo” also revved slowly. It opened on Wednesday...

Two Hollywood new releases, “A Haunting in Venice” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem” failed to make much of an impression on the South Korean box office in their opening weekend. Instead, local fantasy drama “Sleep” headed the chart for a second time.

“Sleep” earned $2.38 million in its second weekend, a creditably modest 20% weekend-on-weekend decline, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). Its market share held up decently too, at 39%. After 12 days in Korean cinemas the Cannes title has earned $7.67 million.

But the competition was weak. “A Haunting in Venice” was the week’s top new release, but it failed to reach the $1 million mark. Between Friday and Sunday, it earned $676,000 and over its opening five days made $980,000).

The nationwide box office aggregate was the second weakest weekend of 2023, coming in at a flimsy $6.15 million. Historically, mid-September is often a weak...

Features the voices of: Marie Iitoyo, Oji Suzuka | Written and Directed by Tomohisa Taguchi

If somebody asked me whether I liked anime, the answer would be a resounding yes! But, the truth is, outside of the amazing films of Studio Ghibli I haven’t watched a whole lot of anime. I’m not a complete novice but I would love to see many more anime movies and shows. And, with a title like The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes, this seemed like a great movie to get on to that.

The tunnel here is the Urashima Tunnel, and the rumour that Kaoru Tono has heard is that the laws of time and space mean nothing there. If you can find it, and walk through it, you’ll find your heart’s desire there, in exchange for a year of your own life.

But what you don’t get...

2D computer animation also took the distribution award.

Sebastien Laudenbach and Chiara Malta’s French-Italian 2D computer animation Chicken For Linda! won the Cristal for best feature film at Annecy International Animation Film Festival this evening.

It was one of two prizes received by the film, alongside the Gan Foundation award for distribution.

Scroll down for the list of feature film winners

Chicken For Linda! (French title: Linda veut du poulet!) follows a mother and daughter, grieving following the loss of the mother’s late husband, who go on a quest across strike-paralysed Paris in search of the key ingredient...

Chicken for Linda! a French and Italian kids feature from directors Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach, has won top prize, the Cristal award, for best film at the 2023 Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

The 2D feature follows a mother struggling to make a chicken dinner for her daughter Linda, despite the fact that she doesn’t know how to cook and has picked a day when the whole country is on strike, making it nearly impossible to find a chicken to buy. Produced by Dolce Vita Films, Chicken for Linda! also picked up Annecy’s Gan Foundation Award for distribution.

Four Souls of Coyote, a 2D feature about Indigenous creation tales, from director Áron Gauder, took the jury prize, while Japanese feature The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes, from director Tomohisa Taguchi, took the Paul Grimault Award.

Sirocco and the Kingdom of Air Streams from French director Benoît Chieux,...

Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach’s hand-painted marvel “Chicken for Linda!” took home dual honors at the Annecy Animation Festival on Saturday, scooping up the festival’s top prize, the Cristal Award for best feature, as well as the Gan Foundation award for distribution.

A bittersweet childhood tale that finds screwball humor in mourning and melancholy, the French-language film premiered to some acclaim out of Cannes’ Acid sidebar last month, and was picked up for North American distribution by Gkids while competing in Annecy.

“We wanted something both funny and affecting,” said co-director Chiara Malta. “The two elements were never in conflict, because we made the film for children, putting ourselves in their perspectives while adopting their language.”

“We wanted a [joyful mess],” added co-director Sébastien Laudenbach. “The film is sad and funny. It’s full of energy and emotion, and as a result, the graphic style is dynamic as well.”

Hungary...

Inspired by the award-winning light novel of the same name, which later became a manga, “The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes” will screen soon in Annecy, before finding its place in the screens of the UK and Ireland from 14th July, courtesy of Anime.Ltd

Tickets are are available now from this link

The series revolves around two high school students, Kaoru and Anzu, who meet up in the rural town the former grew up in, when the latter moves there and joins the same class. Both of them suffer from significant family drama. Kaoru lives with his violent father, who has not managed to get over the death of his daughter, and has become an alcoholic who frequently lashes out at his son. It is during one of those incidents that Kaoru runs away from home and discovers a tunnel with magical properties, which include granting any wish to those who enter,...

Leading animation festival will open with Benoît Chieux’s Sirocco And The Kingdom Of The Winds.

French director Benoît Chieux’s Sirocco And The Kingdom Of The Wind is to open the Annecy International Animation Film Festival which runs from June 11-17.

The film – about two young sisters who discover a passage between this world and the extraordinary universe of The Kingdom of the Winds - is one of 11 titles selected for the festival’s official competition, where it will compete for the Crystal award.

Scroll down for full list

Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry’s Kensuke’s Kingdom – which is...

Celebrating six decades as the animation industry’s premier international showcase and cementing a growing position as Hollywood’s preferred French getaway, the Annecy Intl. Animation Festival revealed its 2023 program in Paris on Thursday, unveiling a formidable selection of world premieres and industry debuts.

If only for the breadth of this year’s official selection, Annecy looks set to for its most fulsome and abundant edition.

Among the 11 titles competing for this year’s Cristal – Annecy’s top prize – Jérémie Périn’s sci-fi drama “Mars Express” and Jim Capobianco & Pierre-Luc Granjon stop-motion Leonardo da Vinci epic “The Inventor” will make their world premieres. Other eagerly anticipated titles include “Chicken for Linda!” from Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach, “Four Souls of Coyote” from by Áron Gauder, and “The Inseparables” by Jérémie Degruson.

Titles like Liu Jian’s “Art College 1994” and Sepideh Farsi’s “The Siren” will arrive in the idyllic French...

The Annecy International Animation Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 2023 edition, running from June 11 to 17.

More than 13,000 animation professionals are set to descend on the French festival’s lakeside setting for its traditional mix of screenings programs across all formats, Work-in-Progress and First-Look sneak peeks, and presentations going behind the scenes of upcoming animation productions.

Competition title Sirocco And The Kingdom Of The Winds by French director Benoît Chieux opens the festival. The fantasy follows the adventures of two young sisters as they try to make their way home after getting trapped in the world of their favorite book.

A Cat In Paris and Phantom Boy director Alain Gagnol co-wrote the screenplay for the feature lead produced by Paris-based Sacrebleu Productions.

The film, which world premieres in Annecy, is among 11 titles competing for the festival’s Crystal award.

Another three French productions debut in Competition: Chiara Malta and...

Festival will also host tributes to Taiwan’s Tsai Ming-liang and late director Shinji Aoyama.

US director Julie Taymor is to preside over the international competition jury of Tokyo International Film Festival, which has also announced plans to revive the Akira Kurosawa Award and host tribute screenings to Taiwan’s Tsai Ming-liang and late Japanese director Shinji Aoyama.

The festival has unveiled highlights of its 35th edition, which will run October 24 to November 2, ahead of the announcement of its full line up on September 21.

Taymor is known for directing features such as Frida, Titus, Across The Universe and The Glorias...