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This fall, GKIDS will handle the North American distribution of 100 Meters (Hyakuemu), a new film by On-Gaku: Our Sound director Kenji Iwaisawa.
In addition to distributing the film, GKIDS, which was recently acquired by Japanese entertainment giant Toho, has also joined the film as a producer alongside Pony Canyon, Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS), and Asmik Ace.
A teaser trailer for the film was released yesterday:
Here’s what we currently know about the project:
- The film is an adaptation of a manga by the same name written and illustrated by 27-year-old Uoto (Orb: On the Movements of the Earth).
- The film is being produced by Iwaisawa’s company Rock ‘n’ Roll Mountain. Keisuke Kojima is character designer and executive animation director, Keikankun Yamaguchi is art dirctor, Yasuyuki Muto wrote the screenplay, and Hiroaki Tsutsumi composed the score.
- Official synopsis via GKIDS:
100 Meters follows Togashi, a track star who is born to run. As a kid, he is naturally gifted and wins every 100-meter race without effort. But in sixth grade, he meets Komiya, a transfer student who is full of determination but lacks technique. In teaching him, Togashi gives Komiya a new purpose: to win no matter what. Years pass by, and Togashi and Komiya meet again as rivals on the track and reveal their true selves.
- Iwaisawa’s first feature On-Gaku: Our Sound was a punk production made over seven-and-a-half years with a tiny crew and mostly private money (including crowdfunding). In an interview with Cartoon Brew, he explained the challenges of making that film: “[B]ecause we had no budget to speak of, we couldn’t get professional animators or anyone onboard, so we found our staff through social networking services. In the first year or two of production, we found around 20 people through online call-outs, but almost none of them had experience making animation. At the beginning, we forged ahead with production through trial and error, myself included.
- Of his new film, Iwaisawa says, “I feel that this film, which depicts men obsessed with running faster than anyone else, could be a work that resonates with audiences around the world.” GKIDS president David Jesteadt, who also serves as a producer on the film, added, “Director Iwaisawa has proven once again why sports has continued to be such an ideal lens to view and understand the human spirit. Even in something as simple a 100 meter race, the entire kaleidoscope of human emotion comes into play.”
- 100 Meters will be released in Japan on September 19, followed by a North American theatrical release from GKIDS in October. The domestic release will be available in both subtitled and dubbed versions.
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