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Kyoto Animation's Liz and the Blue Bird Film Opens in Taiwan in September
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Taiwanese film distributor GaragePlay announced last Saturday that it will open Kyoto Animation and Naoko Yamada's Liz to Aoitori (Liz und ein Blauer Vogel or Liz and the Blue Bird), the first of two planned all-new anime films for the Sound! Euphonium franchise, in Taiwan on September 21.
The film opened in Japan on Saturday, April 21. The film ranked #11 and earned 53,573,900 yen (about US$492,400) in its opening weekend. The film will screen out of competition at this year's Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
The film tells a new story of third-year students Nozomi Kasaki and Mizore Yoroizuka. Both characters were the focus of the first half of Sound! Euphonium's second season, which corresponds to the second book in the novel series. While the band's aloof principal oboist Mizore has been reunited with the popular and friendly flautist Nozomi when Nozomi rejoined the band in her third year, there is still some distance between them. To Mizore, the thought that they might once again part after high school is heavy on her mind. The band chooses to play a piece based on a children's book titled "Liz and the Blue Bird," whose story Mizore dislikes due to the ending. The piece heavily involves duet portions between the oboe and flute soloists, but Mizore and Nozomi cannot seem to mesh their performance together due to the problems between them.
Naoko Yamada (K-ON!, A Silent Voice) directed the film off scripts by Reiko Yoshida (K-ON!, Yowamushi Pedal). Futoshi Nishiya (A Silent Voice, Free!, episode animation director for both television anime seasons), returned to design the characters. Mutsuo Shinohara (A Silent Voice, Clannad) returned as art director. kensuke ushio (A Silent Voice, Space Dandy) composed the music.
Other staff members include:
- Color Design: Naomi Ishida
- Instrument Setting: Hiroyuki Takahashi
- Director of Photography: Kazuya Takao
- 3D Director: Tetsuo Umetsu
- Sound Director: Yota Tsuruoka
- Music Production: Lantis
- Music Production Cooperation: Senzoku Gakuen College of Music
- Music Supervision: Masahiro Ōwada
The second planned film will tell the story of Kumiko Ōmae and others as second-year students. Tatsuya Ishihara (both seasons of Sound! Euphonium) is directing that film.
Source: GaragePlay
Update: Corrected country in headline.
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