Mizuki Tsujimura's Lonely Castle in the Mirror Novel Gets Anime Film This Year

Shochiku announced on Thursday that Mizuki Tsujimura's Lonely Castle in the Mirror (Kagami no Kojō) novel is inspiring an anime film adaptation that will open in Japan in "winter 2022." (The timeframe for winter theatrical releases in Japan would be at the end of the year.)

Doubleday released the novel in English in April 2021, and it describes the story:

In a tranquil neighbourhood of Tokyo, seven teenagers wake to find their bedroom mirrors are shining.

At a single touch, they are pulled from their lonely lives to a wondrous castle filled with winding stairways, watchful portraits and twinkling chandeliers. In this new sanctuary, they are confronted with a set of clues leading to a hidden room where one of them will be granted a wish. But there's a catch: if they don't leave the castle by five o'clock, they will be punished.

As time passes, a devastating truth emerges: only those brave enough to share their stories will be saved.

Tsujimura released the original novel in Japan in 2017. It won the 2018 Japan Booksellers' Award, topped Da Vinci magazine's Book of the Year list in 2017, and won the grand prize in the King's Brunch Book Prize 2017. Erewhon will release hardcover edition of the English version of the novel on July 5.

Tsujimura's Anime Supremacy! (Haken Anime!) novel is also inspiring an upcoming live-action film adaptation that will open this May. Vertical released the novel in English in October 2017.

Tsujimura also wrote the story for Naoshi Arakawa's A School Frozen in Time manga, which Vertical released in English. Tsujimura also penned the script for the Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Chronicle of the Moon Exploration anime film in 2019.

Source: Comic Natalie