Voice actors Miyu Irino and Takashi Okabe are joining the voice cast of the upcoming original anime film A New Dawn. The film is scheduled to begin screening in Japanese theaters sometime in 2025.
Irino will voice Sentaro Tatewaki (left), who is Keitaro’s older brother and Kaoru’s childhood friend, while Okabe will voice Eitaro Tatewaki (right), who is Keitaro’s missing father.
They join a main voice cast that marks the voice acting debuts for both actors, which include Riku Hagiwara as Keitaro Tatewaki and Kotone Furukawa as Kaoru Shikimori.
A New Dawn marks the feature debut of director Yoshitoshi Shinomiya, who has been involved with anime films such as Makoto Shinkai‘s The Garden of Words (poster illustrator) and Your Name (recollection scene key animator and unit director), Sunao Katabuchi‘s In This Corner of the World (watercolor painter et al.), and Takayuki Hirao‘s Pompo the Cinephile (art board artist). Shinomiya also directed short-form work like Tokino Kousa and the Chiaki Mayumura music video “Boukentai ~Heroes of the old forest~.”
Shinomiya is also credited as the creator and scriptwriter for the anime film. Other staff include Utsushita (Tengoku-Daimakyo) as character designer, Akiko Majima (Your Name co-art director) as art director, and Shuta Hasunuma as music composer. Asmik Ace, Studio Outrigger, and Miyu Productions are in charge of the animation production.
A New Dawn was previously screened at the 77th Cannes Film Festival’s 2024 Annecy Animation Showcase. Cannes describes the film’s main synopsis as:
The Obinata Fireworks Shop factory is getting prepared for an administrative action for confiscation tomorrow. It has been six years since Keitaro has been holed up in a closed-down factory creating fireworks by himself, chasing after an illusion of his father who vanished. It is a story about three young people who overcome the extreme weather conditions, disasters and environmental problems imposed on them and establish their own identities.
