Welcome to the first of four trailer posts this week.
The next trailer posts will be published over the following days this week.
There are over 20 Japanese films so I have decided to split the trailer post up. One of these titles will be released on Netflix while the rest will go to mini-theatres and big theatre chains.
Being a dedicated film fan in Japan must be very difficult considering there are between ten and twenty films released over a week! Like a lot of people, I’m streaming. Mostly screeners for festival films but also titles on Internet Archive. I’m averaging about two films a day, something only possible because I wake up at 03:30 in the morning and also have enough time at the end of the day to slot a film in!
What are the first bunch of films hitting cinema screens (and streaming in one case) this weekend?
Gekijouban Oishii Kyuushoku Road to Ikameshi 
劇場版 おいしい給食 Road to イカメシ 「Gekijouban Oishii Kyuushoku Road to Ikameshi」
Release Date: May 24th, 2024
Duration: 104 mins.
Directors: Shinya Ayabe
Writers: Yuuji Nagamori (Script),
Starring: Hayato Ichihara, Yuuno Ohara, Taiki Tazawa, Eishin, Maiko Ito, Atsuko Takahata,
Website Twitter: @oishikyushoku
Synopsis: The third movie version of the TV show set in the 1980s about a teacher named Yukio Amarida (Hayato Ichihara) who loves the school lunch. He has been transferred to a junior high school in Hakodate, northern Japan and is anticipating the local delicacies he can try out while on the job but it is no longer on the menu when he arrives. Meanwhile, he has to protect the school meals of another school from political meddling and there’s a new teacher named Ai who has the hots for him and there are opponents for the food…
Uma Musume Pretty Derby: Beginning of a New Era 
劇場版 ウマ娘 プリティーダービー 新時代の扉 「Gekijouban Uma Musume Pretty Derby: Shinjidai no Tobira」
Release Date: May 24th, 2024
Duration: N/A
Director: Ken Yamamoto
Writer: Kiyoko Yoshimura (Screenplay/Series Composition), Cygames (Original Creator),
Starring: Sumire Uesaka (Agnes Tachyon), Yui Ogura (Manhattan Café), Yuri Fujimoto (Jungle Pocket), Miyuki Sakurai (Ru), Eriko Matsui (Fuji Kiseki)
Animation Production: CygamesPictures
Website Twitter: @uma_musu_movie ANN MAL
Uma Musume is a popular mixed-media franchise that started life as a cellphone game where players raise various “Uma Musume”, girls who inherit the names and souls of real racehorses.
The film runs ahead of “Uma Musume: Pretty Derby Hot-Blooded Extreme Grand Appreciation Festival” game, which will launch on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam on August 30 (source).
Synopsis: The game involves the player taking on the role of a train and working with Uma Musume (Horse Girls), girls endowed with excellent running capability after gaining the spirit of some iconic racing horse, and who aim to become top idols and compete in the national sports entertainment show “Twinkle Series.”
Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction Part 2 
デッドデッドデーモンズデデデデデストラクション 後章 「Deddo Deddo De-monzu Dededededesurakushon Goshou」
Release Date: May 24th, 2024
Duration: 120 mins
Director: Tomoyuki Kurokawa
Writer: Reiko Yoshida (Series Composition/Screenplay), Inio Asano (Original Creator),
Starring: ano (Oran Nakagawa), Lilas Ikuta (Kadode Koyama), Atsumi Tanezaki (Kiho Kurihara), Miyu Irino (Keita Oba), Tomokazu Sugita (Isobeyan), Junichi Suwabe (Hiroshi Nakagawa),
Animation Production: Production +h
Website Twitter: @dedededeanime ANN MAL
This is the first of a two-part anime movie that it based on a manga by Inio Asano (Oyasumi Punpun).
It has been adapted for the screen by Reiko Yoshida, a veteran writer whose credits go back to the 90s and include Digimon, Emma: A Victorian Romance, and A Silent Voice, and Violet Evergarden) and Tomoyuki Kurokawa, a journeyman director who has worked on titles like Psycho-Pass, Un-Go, and .HACK//SIGN.
Synopsis: Three years ago, a giant spaceship parked itself over Tokyo as aliens “threatened” to destroy the Earth. The Japanese government went into action mass-producing weapons in preparation for a war with the invaders. However, nothing like that quite transpired as people eventually resumed their normal lives with the aliens blending in while their “mother ship” hangs ominously in the sky. Two high school girls, Kadode Koyama and Ouran Nakagawa, a.k.a. “Ontan,” live a normal school life and learn what it means to be an adult and how adults, not aliens, might be the real threat to humanity.
My Oni Girl 
好きでも嫌いなあまのじゃく 「Suki demo Kirai na Amanojaku」
Release Date: May 24th, 2024
Duration: 112 mins
Director: Tomotaka Shibayama
Writer: Yuko Kakihara (Screenplay),
Starring: Kensho Ono (Hiiragi Yatsuse), Miyu Tomita (tsumugi), Aya Yanae (Mio Takahashi), Hisako Kyouda (Gozen), Mio Tanaka (Mikio Yatsuse)
Animation Production: Studio Colorido
Website Twitter: @studiocolorido ANN MAL
This is an original feature-length animation by Studio Colorido (Penguin Highway). It releases on Netflix on the same day as its theatrical release, so check Netflix to see if it is available.
Synopsis: Hiiragi Yagase is a high school freshman living in Yamagata Prefecture. Eager not to be disliked, he finds himself accepting any and all requests that others make of him. Despite his doormat status, he has yet to make any friends he can call his bestie. One summer day, it begins snowing and this is when Hiiragi meets Tsumugi, an oni girl who has come to the human world to look for her mother.
Kaette Kita Abunaideka 
帰ってきた あぶない刑事 「Kaette Kita Abunaideka」
Release Date: May 24th, 2024
Duration: 120 mins.
Director: Hiroto Hara
Writer: Shundo Okawa, Yoshiro Oka, (Screenplay),
Starring: Hiroshi Tachi, Atsuko Asano, Toru Nakamura, Kyohei Shibata, Tao Tsuchiya,
This is the eighth film based on a drama series that was first broadcast on TV in 1986 and it has been eight years since the last film.
Synopsis: Ex-police detectives Taka and Yuji return from retirement as private eyes in New Zealand when they get caught up in multiple cases, one involving a missing woman named Natsuko, another with the death of a Japanese businessman in Hong Kong, and another involving murders and terrorist attacks in Yokohama.