Two new cast members have been added to The Imaginary anime film voice cast, which include Akira Terao as The Old Dog and Hana Sugisaki as the voice of the Aurora. The film will screen theatrically in Japan on December 15, 2023 and debut worldwide sometime in 2024.
They join a main voice cast that includes Kokoro Terada as Rudger, Rio Suzuki as Amanda, Sakura Andou as Lizzie, Riisa Naka as Emily, Takayuki Yamada as Zinzan, Atsuko Takahata as Granny Downbeat, and Issey Ogata as Mr. Bunting.
The anime film is directed by Yoshiyuki Momose, who directed the 2019 Ni no Kuni anime film and served as character designer on the Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom video game. Momose previously worked on several Studio Ghibli films like Porco Rosso, Pom Poko, Whisper of the Heart, and Princess Mononoke. Studio Ponoc is the animation production company.
Yoshiaki Nishimura is serving as the film’s producer, having previously produced Mary and The Witch’s Flower and the first volume of Modest Heroes: Ponoc Short Films Theatre.
The Imaginary is an adaptation of A.F. Harrold and Emily Gravett‘s 2014 novel of the same name. The film was originally meant to be released in the summer of 2022, with a delay announced later that March.
Studio Ponoc describes the film’s synopsis as:
The main character of The Imaginary is Rudger. Born from a young girl’s imagination, Rudger is a boy no one can see who lives in a world where imaginations can live and be eaten by others. The Imaginary is an extraordinarily touching and beautiful hand-drawn fantasy film in which Rudger and his new friends in “The Imaginaries Town” embark on an adventure no one can see at the risk of the futures and fates of those they love.
