is a Japanese

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

novel series written by

Nahoko Uehashi (born July 15, 1962 in Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese writer, primarily of fantasy books, for which she has won many awards. Uehashi is also Professor of Ethnology at Kawamura Gakuen Women's University, having completed a PhD focusing on the Yamat ...

Kadokawa Kadokawa may refer to: *Kadokawa Corporation, the holding company of the Kadokawa Group **Kadokawa Content Gate and Kadokawa Mobile, both former names for BookWalker **Kadokawa Future Publishing, a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation and the publis ...

published the original novel in two volumes in September 2014, and then republished it in four reprinted volumes between June and July 2017. A

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

adaptation with art by Taro Sekiguchi was serialized online via

Kadokawa Shoten , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing based in Tokyo, Japan. It became an internal division of Kadokawa Corporation on October 1, 2013. Kadokawa publishes manga, light novels, manga anthology magazines su ...

's ''Young Ace Up'' website between July 2021 and March 2022. It was collected in two ''

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

'' volumes. An

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

film adaptation by

Production I.G is a Japanese animation studio and production enterprise, founded on December 15, 1987, by Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and headquartered in Musashino, Tokyo, Japan. The letters I and G derive from the names of the company founders: producer Mitsuhisa Ish ...

premiered on February 4, 2022.

Plot

In the years following a vicious war, the Empire of Zol now controls the land and citizens of rival Aquafa-except for Aquafa's Fire Horse Territory, where wild dogs that once carried the deadly Black Wolf Fever continue to roam free. When a pack of dogs race through a Zol-controlled mine, Van, an enslaved former soldier, and a young girl named Yuna are both bitten, but manage to escape as the sole survivors of the attack. Finally free, Van and Yuna seek out a simple, peaceful existence in the countryside. But as the deadly disease once again runs rampant, they find themselves at the crossroads of a struggle much larger than any one nation.

Characters

; : ; : ; : ; :

Media

Novels

Manga

Anime film

adaptation was announced on June 21, 2018. It was later announced to be an anime

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

adaptation produced by

. The film is directed by

Masashi Ando is a Japanese animator, character designer and filmmaker. He is known for working with Hayao Miyazaki, Satoshi Kon and Makoto Shinkai. He was the animation director and character designer for three of the four anime films in the top five box ...

and

Masayuki Miyaji , born on , is a Japanese anime director and supervisor. Biography Upon graduating from Nihon University's art department's school of film, Miyaji took part in Studio Ghibli's ''Higashi-Koganei Sonjoku'' training program in 1998. He studied unde ...

, with Ando designing the characters,

Taku Kishimoto is a Japanese anime screenwriter. After leaving Studio Ghibli, he was put in charge of screenwriting for ''Bunny Drop''. Following its completion, he has worked on several series, some of which are ''Haikyu!!'', '' Erased'', and the remake of ''F ...

handling the scripts, and Harumi Fuuki composing the film's music. It was originally scheduled to premiere on September 18, 2020, but was delayed to September 10, 2021, due to undisclosed reasons. The film was delayed again in August 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It premiered on February 4, 2022. The film had its world premiere in the official feature film competition at

Annecy International Animation Film Festival The Annecy International Animation Film Festival (french: Festival international du film d'animation d'Annecy, officially abbreviated in English as the Annecy Festival, or simply Annecy) was created in 1960 and takes place at the beginning of J ...

on June 14, 2021. It has been licensed for release in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and French-speaking Europe by

Anime Limited Anime Limited, also known as All the Anime is a British anime distribution company based in Glasgow, Scotland. It releases anime for British, Irish, French and other European audiences. The company was established in 2012 by Andrew Partridge, b ...

. Selecta Visión acquired the distribution rights for Spain, with a theatrical release date set for June 9, 2022.

GKIDS GKIDS is an American film distributor based in New York with, according to the ''Los Angeles Times'', a focus on "sophisticated, indie" animation. GKIDS releases critically acclaimed, mostly hand-drawn, international films—such as the works o ...

acquired the film for release in North America and screened it in both Japanese with English subtitles and an English dub on July 13, 2022.

References

External links

* * * * * 2014 Japanese novels 2017 Japanese novels 2021 anime films 2021 manga Anime films based on novels Anime postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Book series introduced in 2014 Fantasy anime and manga Fantasy novel series Japanese fantasy novels Japanese webcomics Kadokawa Dwango franchises Kadokawa Shoten manga Manga based on novels Novels by Nahoko Uehashi Production I.G Seinen manga Webcomics in print {{anime-stub