Trapped in a town frozen in time, life must keep going without any change. While struggling for a future, two students have their fate altered upon an encounter with a mysterious girl.
Directed by Mari Okada, #maboroshi will be streaming on Netflix, January 15! pic.twitter.com/81kulPW3JI
— Netflix Anime (@NetflixAnime) November 26, 2023
With this trailer the Netflix revealed that the original anime film Maboroshi (Alice to Therese no Maboroshi Kōjō, or Alice and Therese’s Illusory Factory) by Mari Okada will premiere on that streaming platform on January 15, 2024. The film premiered in Japan on September 15.
The animation is from the studio MAPPA (Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen, The God of High School, Dororo, Dorohedoro), directed by Mari Okada with Tadashi Hiramatsu as assistant director, character design is by Yuriko Ishii (Another, Persona -trinity soul-) who also serves as animation director and the art design is by Kazuki Higashiji (Angel Beats!, Hanasaku Iroha – Blossoms for Tomorrow, The Piano Forest). All of this staff previously collaborated with Okada in the creation of the film Maquia – When the Promised Flower Blooms. The music is from Masaru Yokoyama (Her Blue Sky, Horimiya).
In the cast we have:
- Taku Yashiro as Daisuke Sasakura
- Tasuku Hatanaka as Atsushi Nitta
- Daiki Kobayashi as Yasunari Semba
- Ayaka Saito as Yūko Sonobe
- Maki Kawase as Hina Hara
- Yukiyo Fujii as Reina Yasumi
- Setsuji Satoh as Mamoru Sagami
Okada revealed that the anime film will be a “fantasy story of first love” of young people fighting in an uncertain world and against destiny with love as a weapon. Okada He is also writing a novel for the film (cover below) which Kadokawa Bunko published on June 13th.
In the movie Junya Enoki will be the protagonist of 14 years old Masamune Kikuiri, Reina Ueda is Masamune’s classmate, Atsumi Sagami, and Misaki Kuno is the mysterious Itsumi.
Synopsis for Alice and Therese’s Illusion Factory
The film follows student Masamune, who lives in a city where time has stopped because a sudden explosion in a steel mill blocked all exits from the city. Hoping to one day return to normal, the city’s residents are prohibited from moving and live their grim daily lives.
Masamune’s enigmatic classmate, Atsumi, takes him one day to the steel factory’s fifth blast furnace, and there they meet a girl who is as wild as a wolf and cannot speak. The meeting of Masamune and these two girls upsets the balance of the world. The unstoppable “love impulse” of boys and girls who are tired of their everyday lives begins to destroy the world.
