GKIDS Screens Deiji Meets Girl Anime in Theaters in 2022

GKIDS announced on Thursday that it will screen the original short anime Deiji Meets Girl ("Deji" Meets Girl) in theaters this year.

The anime premeired on October 1 "in the tail end of the Super Animeism" block on MBS, TBS, and 26 other affiliated stations. The anime had 12 90-second weekly episodes.

The anime had its international premiere as a closing-day screening of Montreal's 25th Fantasia International Film Festival last August.

The wondrous story is set in motion one summer when Maise Higa, a listless first-year high school girl who works part-time at the front desk of her family's hotel in Okinawa, meets an "Ichirō Suzuki," a mysterious youth who came alone from Tokyo as a hotel guest. Since Suzuki's arrival, "dëji" things have been happening around Maise, like fish swimming around the room or a giant banyan tree smashing through the hotel ceiling. ("Dëji" is an Okinawan word that means "totally" or "very.")

Kiyono Yasuno voices the main character Maise Higa in the anime.

Tatsuyuki Kobayashi voices the character Ichirō Suzuki.

Ushio Tazawa (chief animation director for Makoto Shinkai works such as The Place Promised in Our Early Days) directed the anime at LIDEN FILMS. Tazawa also adapted the original characters designs by series script supervisor and Okinawan illustrator Akane Malbeni (Side-By-Side Dreamers, DAOKO's CD jacket art and music video character designs) for animation.

Norifumi Okuno and Kaori Akatsu desgined the props. Miu Miyamoto directed the art, and Kunio Tsujita was the color key artist. Yoshimasa Yamazaki was the 3D director. Mitsuyoshi Yamamoto was the compositing director of photography, and Kiyomi Yamada (EditZ) was the editor. Ryousuke Naya directed the sound at Studio Mouse, and Hiroshi Nakamura composed the music. The original story is credited to "Naminoue Seinendan."

Source: GKIDS' Twitter account