Female knights are here to stay, as Academy Award-nominated director Mamoru Hosoda (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Mirai) has announced his upcoming anime movie, Scarlet. The dark fantasy pic will open in Japan on 21 November before hitting theatres in the U.S. on 12 December, with plans for global distribution.
Sony Pictures is co-producing and co-financing the project alongside Studio Chizu and Nippon TV. No other details, including the voice cast, were shared, but it follows the story of a brave princess who transcends time and space.
“Scarlet, a princess who failed to avenge her father’s murder, wakes up in the ‘Land of the Dead’. In this world full of madness, if she does not take revenge on her nemesis and reach ‘The Endless Place,’ she will be reduced to ‘Emptiness’ and cease to exist,” reads the translated description of the film on its website. “An adventure beyond imagination. A never-ending struggle. A fateful encounter that transcends time and space. Can Scarlet find a way to live at the end of her endless journey?”
A new key visual for Scarlet was also unveiled, showing the fierce-looking titular character wielding a sword and decked out in a blood-stained gown:
The upcoming feature marks Hosoda’s first entry since 2021’s Belle. The filmmaker made his directorial debut with 1999’s Digimon Adventure and won critical acclaim in 2006 for The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. In 2009, Hosoda released Summer Wars and swept animation awards in Japan, before co-establishing Studio Chizu with producer Yuichiro Saito two years later. Under the banner, he helmed and wrote the screenplay for 2012’s Wolf Children and 2015’s The Boy and the Beast, with Mirai scoring an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature in 2018.
Scarlet opens in Japan on 21 November and will hit theatres in the U.S. on 12 December.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
Kevin Low
