The anime films All You Need Is Kill, Mononoke The Movie: Chapter II – The Ashes of Rage, and Nightmare Bugs are a part of Annecy 2025’s Midnight Specials category, which features titles “for those passionate about satire, experimental films and thrills.”
All You Need Is Kill is the recently announced anime adaptation of Hiroshi Sakurazaka‘s light novel, which inspired the 2014 Tom Cruise-starring Hollywood film Edge of Tomorrow. The film, which focuses on the character Rita Vrataski, is directed by Kenichiro Akimoto (Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko unit director, Children of the Sea CGI director) at STUDIO4℃, Annecy’s description reads:
Chiba Prefecture, Japan. The Boso Peninsula. A massive, unidentified plant from outer space, known as “Darol”, has spread its roots across the land, wreaking havoc with its electromagnetic waves and high-concentration gas, devastating the environment on a massive scale. To aid in the recovery efforts, volunteers from across the country and abroad have been randomly selected.
Mononoke The Movie: Chapter II – The Ashes of Rage (Gekijouban Mononoke Dainishou: Hinezumi) is the second in the new Mononoke anime film trilogy, which spawned from the 2007 series Mononoke (which in turn originated from the 2006 anthology Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales). The movie, which premiered in Japan last month, is directed by Kiyotaka Suzuki (the first movie’s co-storyboard artist and director support) with Kenji Nakamura (previously director) as chief director. Crew-Cell and EOTA are credited with the animation production.
Annecy describes the supernatural action-mystery as:
Shortly after the frenzied battle against the mononoke, Karakasa, the Medicine Seller returns to Ōoku. There, the aftermath of the previous incident has left its mark, causing a shift in the power dynamics inside the inner chambers. In his pursuit to defeat the mononoke, Medicine Seller delves deeper into the darkness that lurks within Ōoku, seeking to uncover the threefold truth of form, truth, and reason to confront the mononoke and resolve the crisis.
Finally, Nightmare Bugs (or Ghost Bugs) is a re-edit of Saku Sakamoto‘s Aragne: Sign of Vermillion and Feast of Amrita horror movies, which was created “for overseas screening.” The Annecy description reads:
College student Rin and high-school student Tamahi investigate the secrets hidden in a vintage apartment building that has been the subject of rumors of psychic phenomena and strange deaths.
Other anime featured at this year’s Annecy Festival include The Last Blossom and ChaO in the Feature Film Competition and The Mourning Children: Nagiko and the Girls Wearing Tsurubami Black and Daisy’s Life in the Work in Progress category.
Source: Annecy
