ABS-CBN’s digital terrestrial channel Asianovela Channel has announced on Saturday that Kyoto Animation’s teen drama anime film A Silent Voice is lined-up to premiere this month.
The popular film is set to premiere on the channel’s “AC Weekend Cinema” movie block on Sunday, August 25, at 11:00am, with a primetime encore telecast at 09:00pm.
The anime film will air in Filipino dubbing.
The story revolves around Nishimiya Shoko, a grade school student who has impaired hearing. She transfers into a new school, where she is bullied by her classmates, especially Ishida Shouya. It gets to the point where she transfers to another school and as a result, Shouya is ostracized and bullied himself, with no friends to speak to and no plans for the future. Years later, he sets himself on a path to redemption. (Synopsis from Pioneer Films)
A Silent Voice is an anime film based on the seven-chapter manga series by Yoshitoki Oima, which was published in Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine from August 2013 to November 2014.
Naoko Yamada, who worked on anime titles like K-ON! and Sound! Euphonium, directed the anime film, while the scripts were handled by Reiko Yoshida, who also worked on the anime film Tamako Love Story.
Character designs were made by Futoshi Nishiya, which was produced by anime studio Kyoto Animation.
A Silent Voice was released in Japanese cinemas on September 2016, which earned about JP¥2.3 billion (about PHP1.12 billion) in gross sales.
The film was also recognized by several award-giving bodies in Japan, including Excellent Animation of the Year in the 40th Japan Academy Prize and Grand Prize for Anime of the Year (Film Category) in Tokyo Anime Award Festival.
Philippine film distributor Pioneer Films released the anime film in local cinemas in May 2017, which lasted for about two weeks.
TAG, which was media conglomerate ABS-CBN’s Filipino-dubbed cable movie channel, previously announced that they have acquired the film for its television premiere in 2017, together with Makoto Shinkai’s your name, but the channel closed down at the end of January the following year.
Asianovela Channel is the Filipino-dubbed Asian entertainment channel of Philippine media conglomerate ABS-CBN, which was launched in July 2018.
The channel primarily airs Asian dramas and films previously aired on their flagship free-to-air channel, as well as its sister channels, including the defunct Filipino dubbed channels TAG and HEROtv.
The channel is available exclusively on ABS-CBN TVplus digital terrestrial TV service in Mega Manila, Metro Cebu and Cagayan de Oro.
Futoshi Nishiya, who was the character designer for A Silent Voice, was identified as one of the 35 victims who have died in an arson attack at Kyoto Animation’s first studio building in Kyoto, Western Japan last July 18.
Other staff members of the film, such as Ami Kuriki (key animation), Keisuke Yokota (production manager), Junichi Uda (in-between animation), Mikiko Watanabe (background art), Sachie Tsuda (paint) and Yoshiji Kigami (key animation), also passed away on the attack.
If you would like to help the victims of the arson attack, you may donate directly through international wire transfer to Kyoto Animation through the details on this page.
UPDATE (August 22, 2019): ABS-CBN’s Asianovela Channel started airing on Thursday its television commercial, which has been inserted above.
