The Imaginary anime film reveals main trailer and cast

On Monday, August 21, 2023, Studio Ponoc began streaming a trailer for its anime film adaptation of author A.F. Harold and illustrator Emily Gravett’s The Imaginary novel. Originally released in 2014, the British children’s novel has since received critical acclaim and has been nominated for and won several noteworthy awards.

The Imaginary’s film adaptation was originally scheduled for a Q3 2022 release but was later delayed to December 15, 2023, due to production issues. The latest trailer reconfirms the Friday, December 15 release date for the film, likely meaning that fans can indeed anticipate this as eventually being the actual release date.

Alongside the release of the 90-second trailer for the film, the main Japanese cast for the film was also announced, featuring seven cast members in total. Studio Ponoc has announced that The Imaginary’s English voice cast and more information will be revealed in more announcements, which the studio says are coming “soon.”

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The Imaginary film casts live-action Fullmetal Alchemist’s Selim Bradley and Dororo’s Dororo in starring roles

The latest

As mentioned above, The Imaginary’s December 15 release date was not the originally planned one, with the production team forced to delay it for two major reasons. The first cited was due to “new challenges” stemming from the film’s production methods, suggesting cutting-edge techniques are being used in the film’s production. The second, unsurprisingly, was due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the release of this latest trailer, however, the film is seemingly set for its December release date beyond any doubt. The film will presumably open exclusively in Japanese theaters at first, with international releases likely to come in 2024. The film’s title in Japan will be Yaneura no Rudger, which translates to Rudger in the Attic. The film’s main cast includes:

• Kokoro Terada as Rudger
• Rio Suzuki as Amanda
• Sakura Ando as Lizzie
• Riisa Naka as Emily
• Takayuki Yamada as Jinzan
• Atsuko Takahata as Downbeat Grandma
• Issey Ogata as Mr. Bunting

Yoshiyuki Momose is directing the film at Studio Ponoc. Yoshiaki Nishimura, most famously known for his Studio Ghibli credits and work on Ponoc’s own Mary and The Witch’s Flower, is producing the film. Bloomsbury Publishing released the original novel and describes it as follows:

“Rudger is Amanda Shuffleup's imaginary friend. Nobody else can see Rudger--until the evil Mr. Bunting arrives at Amanda's door. Mr. Bunting hunts imaginaries. Rumor has it that he even eats them. And now he's found Rudger.

The description continues,

“Soon Rudger is alone, and running for his imaginary life. He needs to find Amanda before Mr. Bunting catches him--and before Amanda forgets him and he fades away to nothing. But how can an unreal boy stand alone in the real world?”

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Be sure to keep up with all anime, manga, film, and live-action news as 2023 progresses.