The official YouTube channel of Shochiku started streaming a teaser trailer for the anime film adaptation of Mizuki Tsujimura’s Lonely Castle in the Mirror award-winning novel, featuring the voice of the main character for the first time. It also reveals that Keiichi Hara is directing the film at A-1 Pictures. The anime film is set to release this winter.
Lonely Castle in the Mirror is a Japanese novel written by Mizuki Tsujimura and published by Poplar Publishing in May 2017. A manga adaptation illustrated by Tomo Taketomi was serialized in Shueisha’s seinen manga magazine Ultra Jump from June 2019 to February 2022, with its chapters collected into five tankōbon volumes. In 2017, the novel placed first in Kadokawa’s Da Vinci magazine “Book of the Year” list. It also won the Japan Booksellers’ Award in 2018.
The story takes place in a tranquil neighborhood of Tokyo, seven teenagers wake to find their bedroom mirrors shining. At a single touch, they are pulled from their lonely lives to a wondrous castle filled with winding stairways, watchful portraits, and twinkling chandeliers.
In this new sanctuary, they are confronted with a set of clues leading to a hidden room where one of them will be granted a wish. But there’s a catch: if they don’t leave the castle by five o’clock, they will be punished. As time passes, a devastating truth emerges: only those brave enough to share their stories will be saved.
▍ Lonely Castle in the Mirror Staff & Production
Original Work: Mizuki Tsujimura (Poplar Publishing)
Director: Keiichi Hara
Distribution by Shochiku
Animation: A-1 Pictures