Kokuriko-Zaka Kara and The Last Sortie

There is a new Ghibli film in the making! Kokuriko-Zaka Kara sounds like perhaps the most realistic film to be made by Ghibli along the lines of Grave of the Fireflies.

Goro Miyazaki Directing Latest Ghibli Movie 'Kokuriko-Zaka Kara'

December 16, 2010
Source: Anime News Network
by Alex Billington

Gather ’round Studio Ghibli fans! It was just announced by the legendary Japanese animation studio, as reported on Anime News Network (via SlashFilm), that their newest feature-length film is an adaptation of Chizuru Takahashi and Tetsurō Sayama's manga Kokuriko-Zaka Kara (see Wikipedia). Directing will be Goro Miyazaki, son of legendary Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki, who directed their 2006 movie Tales from Earthsea (watch the trailer). Studio Ghibli is already hard at work on this and The Borrowers, as they say Kokuriko-Zaka will actually hit theaters in Japan next summer, plus the official website just went up.

The story is set in 1963, a year before the Tokyo Olympics, and follows the coming of age of an ordinary high school girl named Komatsuzaki (seen above in artwork from the website) in Yokohama, a harbor city near Tokyo. Her sailor father went missing after an accident, and her photographer mother often goes abroad for work. Her family now runs a lodging house. The manga recounts Komatsuzaki's everyday life of "laughter and tears" with two boys: a school newspaper member and the student council president. No magic wizards in this one, it sounds like. Hayao Miyazaki co-wrote the script with Keiko Niwa, also of Tales from Earthsea.

As everyone knows, I'm a huge Miyazaki/Ghibli fan and I'm always interested in their newest feature films, especially because they're some of the only beautiful hand-drawn animated films left these days. I'm looking forward to The Borrowers as well as Kokuriko-Zaka Kara (which I'm sure will get an English title soon), but we're on a delayed schedule in the US and probably won't see either of these new films for a few more years.

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NOTE - The following has been updated here...
(It will not be a film, it will be a manga)





The news was also reported on Den of the Geek where they reminded us [me] that there is a sequel for Porco Rosso in the docket from Ghibli as well.

Studio Ghibli announces new animated feature

Ryan Lambie

Japanese masters of animation, Studio Ghibli, has announced its next feature, called Kokuriko-Zaka Kara…

Published on Dec 17, 2010

Called Kokuriko-Zaka Kara, the movie will be overseen by Goro Miyazaki, the son of Hayao. Perhaps the most reality-based Ghibli movie since 1988's astounding Grave Of The Fireflies, the film is set in 1963, and relates the story of a schoolgirl living in Yokohama.While we patiently await the western release of Studio Ghibli's most recent feature, The Borrower Arrietty, the Japanese animation house has announced its next project.

Goro Miyazaki's last film was Tales From Earthsea, a movie that was greeted with a mixed critical reception when it appeared in 2006, but nevertheless did plenty of business in its native Japan, even knocking Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest off its number one spot on its week of release.

Given that Ponyo On The Cliff took two years to make it to UK shores, it's fairly safe to say that we won't be seeing a subtitled incarnation of Kokuriko-Zaka Karatill approximately 2013.

Looking even further into the future, we've also got Hayao Miyazaki's Porco Rosso sequel, The Last Sortie to look forward to. Now, that's one film we'd love to see.

First Showing

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Kokuriko-Zaka Kara sounds fine, but it's The Last Sortie that I'm looking forward to. Wow! Ghibli doing a sequel and to choose Porco Rosso to make one for! We can't ask for more than that.