After half a year of no news whatsoever, we finally have been gifted with further information about Maasa's upcomming Movie, Light Novel no Tanoshii Kakikata in the form of a theatrical release date.
The movie, a theatrical adaption of a series of Light Novels of the same way, was announced last year and promised to make the story, which is all but unknown outside of Japan, more well-known - though the movie isn't actually being marketed to foreigners.
The movie is set to follow Tsurugi Yabusame, played by our very own Sudou Maasa, as the archetypal cool, tough girl with a distinctly more feminine side hidden underneath a whole more masculine facade. She is the strongest girl in school, but secretly writes award-winning romance Light Novels under a pen-name, but she struggles to write about experiences that she doesn't have herself. And so she seeks the aid of a male classmate, who discovered her secret by accident, to pretend to be her boyfriend so she can get inspiration for her next novel.
The cast lists were released gradually over several weeks in October, starting with the lone announcement that Maasa would be our leading girl, which is when this obscure movie adaption of a relatively obscure light novel came to the attention of our average western fans. But gradually an ensemble cast was revealed, including former Hello!Project Egg Noto Arisa and popular Seiyuu including Taketatsu Ayana (famous for her role as K-ON's Azusa) and Prince of Tennis heart-throb Sato Hisanori.
After the cast lists, we heard very little of the movie. Several months ago Maasa mentioned in an interview that she had acted in a movie and had enjoyed the experience, which gave us hint that filming had ended already and the movie had entered post-production. And the obi found attatched to a recent volume of the Light Novel advertised the new movie and greenlit it for a 2010 release, though we were fairly certain that it would be released this year even without official confirmation. But despite the slow news, interest was far from dead. Every couple of weeks the topic would be brought up in Hello!Online's Maasa thread as fans grew impatient - or perhaps hungry for more tidbits on when they can see our Idol working her magic on the big screen for the first time since she provided voice work for the Mini Moni movie.
Well, the long wait is over!
The long wait for more concrete news, that is. It turns out that my own predictions of a late Summer release were off, and the movie is instead slated to hit Japanese theatres in December.
This does mean that for us foreign fans, we would either have to go see the movie in Japan, or wait for a few months into 2011 for the DVD to be released. And even longer still if you'd rather wait for a subtitled release. ICU-Subs and Hyakupa Subs have both expressed marginal interest in fansubbing the movie, but neither have commited themselves to officially announcing their intentions.
We still have a long wait ahead of us, but at least now we have a date to look forward to, rather than blindly waiting patiently for something to happen.
The movie, a theatrical adaption of a series of Light Novels of the same way, was announced last year and promised to make the story, which is all but unknown outside of Japan, more well-known - though the movie isn't actually being marketed to foreigners.
The movie is set to follow Tsurugi Yabusame, played by our very own Sudou Maasa, as the archetypal cool, tough girl with a distinctly more feminine side hidden underneath a whole more masculine facade. She is the strongest girl in school, but secretly writes award-winning romance Light Novels under a pen-name, but she struggles to write about experiences that she doesn't have herself. And so she seeks the aid of a male classmate, who discovered her secret by accident, to pretend to be her boyfriend so she can get inspiration for her next novel.
The cast lists were released gradually over several weeks in October, starting with the lone announcement that Maasa would be our leading girl, which is when this obscure movie adaption of a relatively obscure light novel came to the attention of our average western fans. But gradually an ensemble cast was revealed, including former Hello!Project Egg Noto Arisa and popular Seiyuu including Taketatsu Ayana (famous for her role as K-ON's Azusa) and Prince of Tennis heart-throb Sato Hisanori.
After the cast lists, we heard very little of the movie. Several months ago Maasa mentioned in an interview that she had acted in a movie and had enjoyed the experience, which gave us hint that filming had ended already and the movie had entered post-production. And the obi found attatched to a recent volume of the Light Novel advertised the new movie and greenlit it for a 2010 release, though we were fairly certain that it would be released this year even without official confirmation. But despite the slow news, interest was far from dead. Every couple of weeks the topic would be brought up in Hello!Online's Maasa thread as fans grew impatient - or perhaps hungry for more tidbits on when they can see our Idol working her magic on the big screen for the first time since she provided voice work for the Mini Moni movie.
Well, the long wait is over!
The long wait for more concrete news, that is. It turns out that my own predictions of a late Summer release were off, and the movie is instead slated to hit Japanese theatres in December.
This does mean that for us foreign fans, we would either have to go see the movie in Japan, or wait for a few months into 2011 for the DVD to be released. And even longer still if you'd rather wait for a subtitled release. ICU-Subs and Hyakupa Subs have both expressed marginal interest in fansubbing the movie, but neither have commited themselves to officially announcing their intentions.
We still have a long wait ahead of us, but at least now we have a date to look forward to, rather than blindly waiting patiently for something to happen.
