GKIDS finally gave us a look at studio SASAYURI‘s upcoming anime film adaptation of Machiko Kyo’s wartime josei manga, Cocoon—One Summer of Girlhood, and boy howdy does it look like it’s going to put audiences through the wringer when it hits theaters this September.
Based on the true story of the Himeyuri students in Okinawa, Cocoon—One Summer of Girlhood tells the story of a group of young girls serving as medics during World War II. Directed by Yukimitsu Ina (Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, Star Wars: Visions – Tatooine Rhapsody), the film’s trailer teases a cinematic experience that’ll pull none of its punches as things get disastrously bad for the bright-eyed schoolgirls as they hold on to their sanity in the hopes of one day seeing a brighter tomorrow together.
Here’s the film’s official plot synopsis:
San and Mayu attend an all-girls school on a warm and tranquil island. When war reaches their shores, they are ordered to help nurse the wounded in a military hospital hidden away in a cave. Amidst escalating death and brutality, the friends struggle to find solace in their fragile lives.
If you scratched your head and thought aloud, “Man, this anime movie sure looks like a Studio Ghibli joint,” you’re not far off. The film, which’ll serve as Ina and SASAYURI’s debut feature, was founded by former Ghibli animator Hitomi Tateno, who serves as Cocoon‘s producer. Likewise, the film sees Princess Mononoke and The Boy and the Heron animators Akihiko Yamashita and Shinji Otsuka work together with a new generation of key animators. And, to sweeten the creative pot even further, Cocoon will be scored by none other than Kensuke Ushio of Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, A Silent Voice, Devilman Crybaby, and Dan Da Dan fame. To say the film has an all-star roster behind the scenes would be an understatement.
If you can’t wait until September to see what lies ahead in Cocoon‘s story, Viz Media recently localized the manga in English. In my review of the manga over at Aftermath, I described the story as a cute girls doing M*A*S*H* things manga until it isn’t, writing, “While all of the pressure points of Cocoon are time-stamped in WWII, Kyo’s modern-girl wartime manga is unsettlingly timeless. What Cocoon has to say about what it would be like to live through the experience of war on the front lines at such a tender age is liable to ruin you, as it did me with each page turn. It’s a capital-B bummer of a read. But nestled in the misery of Mayu and San fighting for tomorrow is a bittersweet sentiment about trying again despite it all that’ll linger with me forever.”
Suffice to say, I look forward to SASAYURI’s anime film making me cry with lines in motion just as much as Kyo’s manga did.
Cocoon—One Summer of Girlhood hits theaters in English and Japanese on September 4.
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