Rejoice! The Ni no Kuni film will launch in English on the 16th of January, in both the USA and the UK. The Japanese version launched back in August 2019.
The story follows two teenagers who go on a quest to save the life of a friend and her counterpart from another world but love complicates their quest. The film is totally separate from the games but has the usual counterparts living in another world theme. All the trailers are in Japanese, but feel free to watch one:
It was directed by Yoshiyuki Momose; who worked on the two Ni no Kuni games that hit the west, and the classic Spirited Away and cryfest that is Grave of the Fireflies. Music for the film was composed by Joe Hisaishi who worked on my favorite Ghibli film, Nausicaa Of the Valley of the Wind.
The film stars:
- Kento Yamazaki as Yū
- Mackenyu as Haru
- Mei Nagano as Asha/Kotona
- Mamoru Miyano as Yoki
- Kenjiro Tsuda as Gabaras
- Maaya Sakamoto as Saki / Velsa
- Kouichi Yamadera as Balton
- Yuuki Kaji as Danpa
- Masatō Ibu as King Flander
- Tsuyoshi Muro as Ojii-san
Studio Ghibli is currently working on two new films, and recently released some information about their upcoming theme park set to open in 2022.
Ni no Kuni is a role-playing game, the first entry to the series, Ni no Kuni Dominion of the Dark Djinn launched on the Nintendo DS way back in 2010. The series first reached western shores through Namco Bandai when they published Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch on the PlayStation 3. It was noted for its Ghibliesque animation, story, and humor. Plus drippy had the best accent of any video game character in history. Since the original launch, the game has also been re-released for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch.
Ni no Kuni 2 launched back in 2018 with a whole heap of different versions.