The official website of Japanese publishers, Shogakukan, revealed a teaser for their special movie, which will be released as part of their 100th anniversary celebration, on Aug 1, 2022.

The teaser is currently being streamed on the publisher’s YouTube channel.

The special movie will be released on Aug 8, 2022, the same day the publishing giant celebrates its 100th anniversary.

The movie is being directed by Takahiro Miki, who Shogakukan contacted with the idea in December 2020. Taiki Ueda too will partner with Miki on the movie, with Nana Komatsu roped in to act in the movie and Koichi Yamadera handling the narration.

Mangaka Inio Asano will be handling the art in the movie, while Shu Kanematsu is in charge of the music.

The movie will represent, in a cinematic format, the early days of Shogakukan, which overcame the Great Kanto Earthquake and World War II. According to the publishers, the story begins in Okayama City in 1912, but eventually moves to Tokyo.

Komatsu, who is the main cast of the movie, said that she had fun acting in it.

“We filmed for four days, but I had so much fun acting on the sets and in the artwork that I felt as if I were about to begin a long film shoot,” the actress said.

The director of the movie, Miki, was of the opinion that creating the movie was possible only through a miraculous combination of many wonderful connections. Narrator Yamadera too praised the quality of the movie and hoped that many people would watch the movie.

Shogakukan Inc. is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, comics (manga), non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the Hitotsubashi Group, one of the largest publishing groups in Japan.

Established on Aug 8, 1912, the publisher’s 100th anniversary celebration is focusing on the theme, starting from zero, which essentially urges everyone involved in the industry to shed their past customs and practices and start thinking from the ground up to make things more interesting and encourage new and better ideas.

According to Shogakukan, this will create an entirely new Shogakukan 100 years down the line and they believe that “many new flowers will blossom” in the next 100 years due to this.

Source: Shogagkukan’s official website.