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GKIDS Licenses French-Japanese Co-Production Film Ghost Cat Anzu

GKIDS announced at the Annecy Animation Festival on Sunday that it has acquired the North American rights to Ghost Cat Anzu, Shin-Ei Animation and France's Miyu Productions' 2D-animated film based on Takashi Imashiro's Bakeneko Anzu-chan manga. The Paris-based CHARADES company will handle international sales.

The project will screen as a work-in-progress at Annecy. The film is scheduled for release in 2024.

Yōko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita are directing the film and Shinji Imaoka is writing its script. The film will be 90 minutes long and will utilize mixed animation techniques combining 2D digital animation with rotoscopy.

Miyu Productions describes the film's story:

Karin, 11 years old, is abandoned by her father at her grandfather's house, the monk of a small town in the Japanese countryside. Her grandfather asks Anzu, his jovial and helpful although rather capricious ghost cat, to look after her. The meeting of their strong characters causes sparks, at least at the beginning…

Kodansha published the one-volume Bakeneko Anzu-chan manga in 2007.

Shin-Ei Animation is best known for producing Doraemon and Crayon Shin-chan, two long-running television anime that both consistently rank among the highest weekly ratings for animated programs in Japan. Daikichirō Kusube founded the studio in 1976.

Source: Variety (Ben Croll)