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Eleven Arts Reveals Home Video Release for Penguin Highway Anime Film on August 6
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Eleven Arts announced at its panel at Anime Central on Saturday that it will release Hiroyasu Ishida and Studio Colorido's Penguin Highway anime film on home video.
Eleven Arts will release Penguin Highway in a Blu-ray Disc and DVD combo pack, on DVD, and via digital download on August 6. Bonus features will include interviews with director Hiroyasu Ishida and novel author Tomihiko Morimi, a "Good Night" promo video, and a promo video of Ishida's past works.
The company also teased a limited edition release in partnership with Right Stuf and Nozomi Entertainment, with details to come later.
Eleven Arts screened the film in the United States starting on April 12 and in Canada on April 19. The film opened in Japan on August 17 and ranked #10 in its opening weekend.
The story of the original novel by Morimi centers on fourth grader Aoyama (Kana Kita) and a mysterious older woman (Yū Aoi), who is a dental assistant and also Aoyama's first crush. When a group of penguins appears in his quiet suburban neighborhood, Aoyama works to uncover the reason for their appearance.
Ishida, who directed Colorido's "Hinata no Aoshigure" and "Fumiko's Confession" shorts, directed the film as his first feature-length directorial work. Typhoon Noruda director Yōjirō Arai designed the characters for the film. Makoto Ueda, who wrote and supervised the scripts for anime adaptations of Morimi's The Tatami Galaxy and Night is Short, Walk On Girl novels, returned to pen the script for this film. Umitarō Abe composed the music.
The film won the "Axis: The Satoshi Kon Award for Excellence in Animation" award for Best Animated Feature at Montreal's Fantasia International Film Festival in July. The film has also been nominated for the Animated Theatrical Film Category of the VFX-Japan Awards.
Source: Email correspondence
