GAGA Bunko's "Tunnel to Summer, Exit for Sayonara" to be adapted into a theatrical animation! Scheduled to be released in the summer of 2022

An animated feature film adaptation of the juvenile science fiction novel "Natsu e no Tunnel, Sayonara no Exit" has been decided.

Tunnel to Natsu, Sayonara no Deguchi" won both the Gaga Award and the Jury's Special Award at the 13th Shogakukan Light Novel Award. It is a boy-meets-girl story about a summer in an urban legend called "Urashima Tunnel," in which "if you enter the tunnel, you will get what you want instead of getting old.

The protagonist, who lost his beloved sister in the past and lives with a lack, and a transfer student with a certain problem try to get what they both "want" from the "Urashima Tunnel.

The film is directed by Tomohisa Taguchi, who also directed "Akudama Drive" and "Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution," and the animation is produced by CLAP ("Eiga Daisuki Ponpo-san").

Comment from Hachime Maze, author of the original story
Tunnel to Natsu, Sayonara no Exit" is a story that was born from my single-mindedly tapping the keys while feeling frustrated by the passing of time. I never dreamed that my heart-burning thoughts at the time would lead to the creation of a film. Director Taguchi and the entire staff worked with passion to produce this film. As an audience member, I am looking forward to the completion of the film.
(Original text)

Original story information
Gaga Bunko "Natsu e no Tunnel, Sayonara no Exit
Written by Hachime Maze, illustrated by Kukka
Price: 672 yen (tax included)
Published by Shogakukan
# # Description

<Synopsis>
The summer of a boy and a girl who challenge a tunnel that transcends time and space.
Kasaki, a country town facing the sea.
One summer morning, Kaoru Tohno, a high school senior, hears an urban legend called "Urashima Tunnel.
It was a fairy-tale-like tunnel that, if you went inside, you could get anything you wanted in exchange for getting old. That night, Kaoru accidentally discovered a tunnel that looked like the "Urashima Tunnel.
His beloved sister, Karen, had died in an accident five years earlier, and he had an idea in his mind as he looked at the tunnel.
--If he enters the "Urashima Tunnel," he may be able to get Karen back.
After school, Kaoru begins to examine the tunnel alone, but there is someone who sneaks up behind him. Hanashiro Anzu, a transfer student. She is the outsider in her class, but she takes an interest in Kaoru. The two form a cooperative relationship to get what they want from each other. ......

This moving work depicts a summer of adolescence filled with tenderness and sadness with delicate brushwork, and won both the GAGA Award and the Judges' Special Award at the 13th Shogakukan Light Novel Award.