©2019 Fumiaki Maruto, Kurehito Misaki, KADOKAWA Fantasia Bunko / PROJECT SAEKANO Film

Philippine film distributor Pioneer Films has announced on Monday that Saekano the Movie: Finale will be released in Philippine cinemas on November 27.

The company previously announced that the anime film will be screened in theaters “as soon as quarantine is lifted”.

Due to government guidelines, the anime film will only be released in cinemas located in Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ) areas, including theaters outside Metro Manila.

 

Entertainment and leisure activities, such as shopping malls, cinema houses and other non-essential public establishments, was prohibited to operate last March due to the declaration of public health emergency to prevent the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.

The Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) has announced in a resolution last June that mass gatherings, which includes movie screenings, will only be allowed in areas under MGCQ status but limited up to 50% of the venue capacity.

The IATF then announced in a resolution last August that the entire country has been placed under MGCQ, except for Metro Manila and select provinces and regions, subject to decision by local government units.

 

©2019 Fumiaki Maruto, Kurehito Misaki, KADOKAWA Fantasia Bunko / PROJECT SAEKANO Film

Saekano the Movie: Finale is the third and final anime adaptation based on the Japanese light novel series Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend, written by Fumiaki Maruto and illustrated by Kurehito Misaki.

The light novel was serialized by Fujimi Shobo, under its Fujimi Fantasia Bunko imprint, from July 2012 to October 2017 with a total of 13 volumes published. The popular novel has also inspired several manga spinoffs, a visual novel game, a spinoff novel, and two television anime adaptations.

The anime film opened in Japanese cinemas in October 2019, which debuted at #5 in the Japanese box office. The anime film was released in 121 screens and earned JP¥136,362,600 (about PHP64.1 million) on its opening weekend.

The anime film was released on Blu-ray and DVD in Japan last September 23.

 

Saekano the Movie: Finale was directed by Akihisa Shibata, who served as episode director of the two previous television anime adaptations, with Kanta Kamei serving as its chief director.

Light novel author Fumiaki Maruto returned to handle the film’s scripts, and Tomoaki Akase also returned to handle the film’s character designs, which was produced by CloverWorks.

 

The Japanese voice cast from the previous adaptations will reprise their respective roles in the anime film, which include:

  • Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as “Tomoya Aki”
  • Kiyono Yasuno as “Megumi Kato”
  • Saori Onishi as “Eriri Spencer Sawamura”
  • Ai Kayano as “Utaha Kasumigaoka”
  • Sayuri Yahagi as “Michiru Hyodo”
  • Chinatsu Akasaki as “Izumi Hashima”
  • Tetsuya Kakihara as “Iori Hashima”

 

 

Pioneer Films will serve as the film distributor in the country, while Southeast Asian anime channel ANIPLUS Asia will be its master licensee.

The anime channel previously announced last year that they plan to screen the anime film in cinemas across Southeast Asia.

The anime film had its Southeast Asian premiere during C3 AFA Singapore 2019, with theatrical screenings in Singapore happened in December 2019 and Thailand followed last January.