Sunrise Festival 2021】Happy news about the release of Blu-ray BOX and the limited time theatrical release! Report on the screening event of "Wataru: The Heroic Legend of the Magus: The Seven Souls -Ryujin Maru Reunion-".

A screening event of the anime "The Heroic Wataru: The Seven Spirits of Ryujinmaru -Reunion-" was held at the Grand Cinema Sunshine Ikebukuro in Tokyo on October 31, 2021. Director Hiroshi Kamishina and Hiroomi Iketani, the production manager of Sunrise, participated in the talk show after the screening.

This event was part of the "Sunrise Festival 2021 REGENERATION," a screening event held from October 1 to 31, 2021.

Wataru Sengbu, an ordinary fourth grader, is summoned to the "Shinbe-kai" as a savior, and together with his robot Ryujinmaru, who has the power of a guardian dragon, and his friends, they restore peace to Mount Soukai. The story is an adventure action drama. The "The Hero of Magic Wataru: Ryujinmaru of the Seven Souls" is a completely new web animation (9 episodes) of the same series that was distributed from April 2020. At this event, all 9 episodes were re-edited and screened as "The Reunion of Wataru: The Legend of Heroes Wataru, The Seven Spirits of Ryujin Maru" with new parts added.

Director Hiroshi Kamishina

After the screening, Director Hiroshi Koshina and Mr. Ikeya took the stage to thunderous applause. Director Koshina commented on the production of the special edited version, "When we were making the nine distributed versions of 'The Heroic Wataru: The Seven Spirits of Ryujinmaru,' we had talked about making it into one (feature-length) anime from an early stage. So we had to think about how to put them all together. The toughest part was how to fit the special edited version into the 120-minute length, which was difficult because we had to connect the nine original animations, which totaled more than 120 minutes, cut them down, and include the new parts. As for the key to how he edited the film, he said, "I changed the last part to the Tiger King's point of view. The Tiger King reverts back to Shoryuko after defeating Dobazdar, so there is no scene to conclude with the Tiger King who has been leading the series! I thought. However, if we put all the scenes from the Tiger King's point of view, there would be too many new parts, and Mr. Nagai (Shingo), the series director, suggested that it would be better to put the main part from Ryujinmaru's point of view, so we came up with this structure.

Hiroomi Ikeya

Mr. Ikeya was surprised that the last part was from the Tiger King's point of view, "I was surprised when I saw the storyboard. I asked Mr. Kamishina to somehow express the fact that there are stories in the two worlds that could not be depicted in the distributed version.

Regarding the new cuts in "Reunion," the director said, "In the distributed version, the story begins at the climax of the battle between Wataru and Dobazdar. But in order to put it all together in one film, I thought it was necessary to introduce what Dovazdar is. We spent a lot of time on the introduction, so we really wanted to include more of Coco and Dororompa's story. The audience applauded when he talked about the appearance of Kurama Watanabe in human form in the new cut at the beginning of the film. Mr. Ikeya told the backstory that he had actually planned a scene in which Shibarak Kembe was transported to another world, and that he wanted to give the new characters a little more depth. The stories of these new characters can be read in a novel serialized in the "Yatate Bunko" magazine.

When asked about the hardships involved in the production, Ikeya said, "It was completed in this form on Friday (two days before the event). When he revealed, "I am glad it was completed," the audience laughed and applauded. The director also told an episode in which he accidentally put an old man gag that was not in the scenario into the storyboard, and the staff got angry with him. Asked how he felt after watching the screening again, Ikeya said, "I felt again that the scene where Ryujinmaru asks Wataru the question at the end is the theme of "Shichitama.

Regarding the scene in which Ryujinmaru asks Wataru, Director Kamishina said, "Whether I ride the ship myself or am involved in it, I am the main character because of the mecha, so I wanted to try a motif of a main character who has no mecha. So I feel satisfied that I was able to do what I wanted to do with "Seven Souls.

Then, there was a corner for major announcements at this event. First of all, the release of the Blu-ray box set of "The Hero of Magic Wataru: The Seven Spirits of Ryujinmaru" was announced. In addition to the 9 episodes of the distributed version, the specially edited version "-Reunion-" will also be included in the box. In addition, a limited time theatrical screening of "Wataru: The Heroic Legend of Magus Wataru -Ryujin Maru of the Seven Souls- Reunion-" has been decided!　It will be screened at 34 theaters nationwide for 3 weeks from January 7, 2022. Details will be announced at a later date.

After the announcement, a photo session was held for visitors, who were happy to share the joyous news of "Seven Souls of Ryujinmaru" with the audience.

In the last part of the event, Mr. Ikeya said, "Wataru: The Legend of the Magus Gods" which was released last year, will be released as a BD-BOX and in theaters. I think nothing has changed. I hope that Wataru will continue to move in your hearts.

Director Koshina concluded his speech by saying, "We were able to hold this event today in a packed theater. Thank you so much. It is thanks to all the fans who have supported us throughout the years that we were able to make a theater production in this way. I don't know what will happen in the future, but I am sure that the work "Wataru" will continue. Please give me your continued support.

(Reporting and writing by Kiri Nakazato)