“Violet Evergarden: The Movie” set for September release after delay

Upcoming anime film of the franchise postponed its opening date twice.

Violet Evergarden: The Movie, the anime film sequel of Kyoto Animation’s popular franchise, has rescheduled its opening in Japanese cinemas on September 18.

The announcement was made after the rebroadcast of the television anime’s 13th episode on Japanese television, which was also confirmed on their official website.

 

The upcoming anime film was originally scheduled to premiere on January 10, but the production committee has decided to delay the release. The decision was made weeks after the devastating arson attack at Kyoto Animation’s Studio 1 building in July last year.

The anime film’s release was then rescheduled to April 24, but concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic had forced the production to delay its release.

 

© Kana Akatsuki, Kyoto Animation / VIOLET EVERGARDEN Production Committee

Violet Evergarden is an anime series based on a Japanese light novel series, written by Kana Akatsuki and illustrated by Akiko Takase.

The novel has won the grand prize in the fifth Kyoto Animation Award competition in 2014, marking the first time that any submitted work has earned the grand prize on any of its three categories, which are the novel, scenario and manga.

KA Esuma Bunko, which is the light novel imprint of the anime studio, had published three volumes of the novel series.

 

Taichi Ishidate, who is the director of the anime series, will return to work on the upcoming anime film, where he will be joined by other staff members including scriptwriter Reiko Yoshida and character designer Akiko Takase.

Yui Ishikawa will reprise her role as the titular character “Violet Evergarden”.

 

The franchise had released Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memories Doll, which serves as a side-story to the main storyline, in Japanese cinemas last September 6.

The anime film was initially set to screen for just two weeks, but extended to at least five weeks due to public demand, which earned an accumulative total of JP¥641,980,500 (about PHP295.6 million).

 

VIVA International Pictures, the foreign film distribution arm of VIVA Entertainment, had released the spinoff film last March 11, which was screened exclusively at SM Cinema branches nationwide.

The film was only screened in cinemas until March 14, due to restrictions imposed by the government caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Industry sources had previously revealed to Anime Pilipinas that the upcoming anime film has also been acquired by the film distributor.

 

The anime adaptation was aired on Japanese television during the Winter 2018 season, which was streamed by Global streaming giant Netflix on a simulcast basis in select countries, including the Philippines.

The streaming platform also added Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memories Doll side-story film to their lineup last April 2.