A teaser trailer was revealed on the official website for the upcoming Lonely Castle in the Mirror anime film on Wednesday. The film will be animated by A-1 Pictures (Sword Art Online, 86 Eighty-Six) and is slated to release sometime this winter. Keiichi Hara (Colorful, Miss Hokusai) will be in charge of directing the film.
The film is based on the award-winning novel created by Mizuki Tsujimura. Lonely Castle in the Mirror was published in 2017 and ended up taking home the grand prize that same year at the King’s Brunch Book Prize awards. Fast forward to 2018, the novel ended up winning the 2018 Japan Booksellers’ Award and placed atop Da Vinci magazine’s “Book of the Year” list. In 2021, US-based publisher Doubleday released the novel in English in 2021 while Erewhon released a hardcover version earlier this month.
In a tranquil neighbourhood of Tokyo, seven teenagers wake to find their bedroom mirrors are shining.
Novel synopsis by Doubleday
At a single touch, they are pulled from their lonely lives to a wondrous castle filled with winding stairways, watchful portraits and twinkling chandeliers. In this new sanctuary, they are confronted with a set of clues leading to a hidden room where one of them will be granted a wish. But there’s a catch: if they don’t leave the castle by five o’clock, they will be punished. As time passes, a devastating truth emerges: only those brave enough to share their stories will be saved.
Some of Director Hara’s more recent films have garnered a lot of success. The film Colorful (2010), based on the novel created by Eto Mori, ended up winning four separate awards including the award for “Excellent Animation of the Year” at the 34th Japan Academy Prize. His direction for the film Miss Hokusai (2015), based on the 1980s manga created by Hinako Sugiura, won a handful of awards, including the Gold Audience Award for best-animated feature film at the Fantasia International Film Festival in 2015.
The film will mark the third for A-1 Pictures that is set to release this year along with Sword Art Online: Progressive – Scherzo of Deep Night and Uta no Prince-sama: Maji Love ST☆RISH Tours.
No specific date for the release of Lonely Castle in the Mirror has been announced at this time. More information about the film will be released on July 28
Source: Official Website
