When the promised flower blooms, a blue bird shall await.
Earlier today, the Annecy International Film Festival announced their list of selections for this year’s event. Four anime projects were announced as features that will screen out-of-competition:
- Liz and the Blue Bird (Feature Films)
- Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms (Feature Films)
- B: The Beginning (Episode 1, TV Films)
- PIG: The Dam Keeper Poems “Yellow Flower”, “Hello Nice to Meet You”
Liz and the Blue Bird
Naoko Yamada (K-On!, A Silent Voice) was tapped to direct Liz and the Blue Bird at Kyoto Animation, with Futoshi Nishiya (Free! – Iwatobi Swim Club, Nichijou – My Ordinary Life) providing character designs. Reiko Yoshida (The Cat Returns, Girls und Panzer) wrote the feature’s script.
Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms
Mari Okada (Anohana, Anthem of the Heart) made her directorial début with Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms. She helmed the film and wrote the script at P.A. Works. Yuriko Ishii (Kuromukuro, Persona -trinity soul-) provided character designs for the project, while Toshiya Shinohara (Black Butler, A Lull in the Sea) served as chief director.
Eleven Arts holds the rights to the feature, which they describe as:
The people of Iorph live far away from the lands of men, weaving the happenings of each day into a fabric called Hibiol. They live for centuries while maintaining their youthful appearance. Maquia, an orphaned Iorph girl, lives her life in an oasis surrounded by friends, yet somehow feels “alone”. But the tranquil lives of the Iorph are shattered in an instant when the Mezarte army invades their territory on a dragon fleet, seeking the blood that grants the Iorph long life. Maquia manages to escape, but loses her friends and her home in the chaos. She then encounters an orphaned baby who is “alone”. Maquia raises this boy “Ariel”, with the help of some new friends. But as the era changes, the bond between Maquia and Ariel changes too, amidst a backdrop of racial tensions between the Iorph and the Mezarte. This is a story of irreplaceable time, woven by two lonely people who can only find solace in each other.
B: The Beginning
B: The Beginning is an original project from Netflix.
Kazuto Nakazawa (Parasite Dolls, Moondrive) and Yoshinobu Yamakawa (Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Little Busters!) directed B: The Beginning at Production I.G., with Nakazawa pulling double duty as character designer. Katsunari Ishida is wrote the show’s screenplay.
Netflix describes the series as:
In a world powered by advanced technology, crime and action unfold in the archipelagic nation of Cremona. Koku, the protagonist. Keith, the legendary investigator of the royal police force RIS. A mysterious criminal organization. A wide variety of characters race through the fortified city as it is beset by the serial killer, Killer B, and a chain of crimes in this suspense drama by director Kazuto Nakazawa and Production I.G. The series is comprised of 12 episodes and is a Production I.G. series that is set to debut globally on Netflix in Spring 2018. B: The Beginning stars Hiroaki Hirata, Yuki Kaji, Asami Seto, Hiroki Touchi, Minoru Inaba, Ami Koshimizu, Toshiyuki Toyonaga, Shintaro Tanaka, Atsushi Goto, Toshiyuki Morikawa and Kaito Ishikawa.
PIG: The Dam Keeper Poems
PIG: The Dam Keeper Poems is based on a short by Robert Kondo and Daisuke Tsutsumi. The project is a co-production between Japan and the United States, which is being produced by Tonko House and directed by Erick Oh. Hulu Japan will distribute the title.
Source: Comic Natalie
Liz and the Blue Bird, Maquia, 2 More to be Shown At Annecy – Samantha Ferreira
