GKIDS reported on Thursday that it has procured the North American distribution rights for The Case of Hana and Alice, Genius Party, Genius Party Beyond, and Summer Days with Coo.
The organization will discharge the anime on home video this year.
The Case of Hana and Alice (Hana to Alice Satsujin Jiken) opened in Japan in February 2015 as Shunji Iwai‘s animated prequel to his 2004 live-action film Hana & Alice. Iwai imagined, composed, and coordinated the first 2004 live-action Hana and Alice.
The film contended at the 39th Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June 2015, and the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal screened the film‘s North American debut in July 2015. The LA EigaFest additionally screened the film in September 2015.
GKIDS describes The Case of Hana & Alice anime as:
“When Alice transfers to a new middle school, she hears an urban legend about a student who disappeared the previous year and is suspected to have been killed by his fellow students. Even worse, Alice discovers that she lives next door to his former house, a supposedly haunted home now occupied by a reclusive classmate named Hana. Hana and Alice decide to investigate this “murder case” together, but soon find their lack of detective skills may be an obstacle, in this unusual and charming film from famed writer-director Shunji Iwai, in which a shaggy-dog mystery tale ultimately gives way to a wonderfully nuanced story of young female friendship, and the fantasies and thrills of everyday teenage life.”
Genius Party is an anthology of short movies created by Studio 4℃ and including chiefs, for example, Koji Morimoto, Shinichiro Watanabe, Shoji Kawamori, Masaaki Yuasa, and Mahiro Maeda. The treasury was part into two sections—Genius Party and Genius Party Beyond — which opened in 2007 and 2008, separately.
The anthology appeared on Netflix in the United States in 2015. The anime has had home video discharges in the United Kingdom and Australia.
GKIDS describes Genius Party and Genius Party Beyond:
“From groundbreaking animation outfit Studio 4°C, creators of MFKZ and the upcoming Children of the Sea, comes an extraordinary project with a simple vision: to take an all-star team of the some best animators working in Japanese animation today, and give each free reign to tell a unique short story. The results are Genius Party and Genius Party Beyond, two animated anthology films full of boundless imagination, fantastic worlds, and unique visual styles.“
GKIDS describes Summer Days with Coo anime film:
“One day, Koichi Uehara, a fourth-grader living in the suburbs of Tokyo, picks up a fossil that looks like a large stone while on his way home from school. To his surprise, he has picked up a baby Kappa (a Japanese mythical water creature), who has been asleep underground for the past 300 years. Koichi names this baby creature “Coo” and brings him to live with his family, and soon the two are inseparable friends.
However, trouble abounds as Coo struggles to adjust to life in suburban Tokyo, and begins to miss his family, leading Koichi and Coo to embark on a summer road trip adventure in search of other Kappa. Directed by Keiichi Hara (Miss Hokusai, Colorful), one of Japan’s leading animated film directors, SUMMER DAYS WITH COO is a heartwarming and magical summer adventure.”
The film won the Best Animation Film grant at the 2008 Mainichi Film Awards and was designated for Best Animation Film at the 2008 Japanese Academy Awards, and for Best Animated Feature Film at the 2007 Asia Pacific Screen Awards. It likewise won the Grand Prize for Animation at the eleventh Japan Media Arts Festival and the Feature Film classification at the 2008 Tokyo Anime Award.
