Anime Writer's Choice: 5 Noteworthy Summer 2021 Anime Films! Anime Column

Picking up the hottest and most notable original titles from the new anime releases for the summer of 2021. The black comedy "Uramichi Ojisan" serialized in "comic POOL", "Love Live! series, "Love Live! Super Star! Superstar!", "White Sand Aquatope" set in an aquarium in Okinawa, "RE-MAIN" with the theme of underwater martial arts and water polo, and "Sonny Boy", an adolescent science fiction ensemble drama from the long-established studio Madhouse.

Uramichi Ourosan

Uramichi Omota, the gymnastic older brother of the educational program "Maman and Together" for toddlers, is 31 years old and has bitten both sweet and sour sides of his life. He is usually a kind and handsome man, but when the switch is turned on, he depicts the sorrows of life, where he can't stop making negative comments even during work. The most notable feature of the film is the cast. The cast includes Hiroshi Kamiya, who plays the lead role, Tomokazu Sugita, Yuichi Nakamura, Mamoru Miyano, and Nana Mizuki, all of whom have played major roles in many works. What kind of chemical reactions will be produced by the subtle synchronization of the members, who have been at the forefront of the animation industry, playing the personalities of an educational program?
The OP theme, "ABC Gymnastics," is set to be a song from the program. The song is sung by Miyano and Mizuki under the name of Iketeru Ojisan and Uta no Ojisan. This is a work that will bring back childhood memories.

Love Live! Super Star!

The latest in the "Love Live! series is set at Yugaoka Girls High School, a private school located between Omotesando, Harajuku, and Aoyama. Unlike the past series, this is a newly established school, so the main characters are all first-year students. Instead of the nine members of the previous series, five members form the school idol group "Liella! The school name and emblem design were also solicited from the public, and the main cast members were chosen through public auditions.
On the other hand, the first cut of the teaser PV shows people coming and going at a pedestrian crossing, indicating that the project's philosophy of "a story that comes true together" has not changed. The staff was led again by director Naohiko Kyogoku, who worked on the first film. Love Live! depicted a group of girls who stood up to save a school from closure, but expectations are high for what emotions will drive the story this time around.

Aquatope of White Sand

P.A. WORKS' new original anime is a coming-of-age story with a work theme, a specialty of the company. The story unfolds when Kukuru Umisakino, a high school girl who claims to be the director of the "Gamagama Aquarium" in Okinawa, which is on the verge of closing, meets Fuka Miyazawa, a girl who has given up her dream of becoming an idol.
In the second PV, Fuka's struggles to work at the aquarium are shown, and penguins, sea turtles, starfish, and other sea creatures are lovingly depicted. While it is an ensemble drama with multiple characters coming and going, it also seems to provide a detailed look at the workings of an aquarium. The depiction of the Okinawan sea and sky is beautiful, and the use of vivid colors, such as the color of Kukuru's hair and the aquarium's work clothes, are also eye-catching. Directed by Toshiya Shinohara and series composed by Yuko Kakihara, this work reunites the main staff of "From Tomorrow in a World of Colors".

RE-MAIN

MAPPA, which has taken on the challenges of figure skating, gymnastics, and other sports that are difficult to depict in anime, will next take on "water polo," which is known as an underwater martial art. Minato Shimizu, a high school student who had won a national championship in junior high school, had stayed away from water polo for one reason or another. He enrolls in the weak water polo team at Sannan High School and teams up with a new group of friends. ......
In the teaser PV that begins with the scene where Minato wakes up, his state of mind is carefully shown before he heads back to the pool. The film is based on the sport of water polo, which requires constant movement in the water, and is known for its intense underwater battles. The general director is Seishi Nishida, who worked on the series composition of the hero anime "TIGER & BUNNY" and the slightly surrealistic road movie "Uwabaki Cook. He will serve in multiple capacities in this work, including original story, series composition, screenplay, and sound director, and is teaming up with MAPPA for the first time.

Sonny Boy

In this coming-of-age sci-fi ensemble piece, 36 classmates are awakened to mysterious supernatural powers, forcing the boys and girls to live an unreasonable life of survival.
Directed by Natsume Shingo, who has worked on a variety of titles, including the action-packed "One-Pan Man" and the more subdued "ACCA 13th Precinct Inspection Division. Manga artist and illustrator Hisashi Eguchi is in charge of character design, and the PV features characters with a simple touch and adolescent-like delicacy, as well as impressive school and classroom scenes depicted with a unique sense of presence. In addition to the drifting situation, the game is set up in a way that allows the viewer to enjoy the experience of a xenobiotic battle, and it looks like it will be a work filled with the charm of an original title with a story whose end is not yet known.

(Text by Katsunori Takahashi)

(C) Gaku Kuze, Ichijinsha/"Uramichi Ojisan" Production Committee
(c) Project Love Live! Super Star!
(C) project Tingara
(C) RE-MAIN Project
(C) Sonny Boy committee