Welcome to the first of three trailer posts covering this weeks new Japanese film releases.
Come back over the next two days for more.
I used to post these at the end of the week then shifted to the start to give more lead time to new releases. There’s a special reason this week as this blog will shift its focus a bit. It’s that time of year again! Osaka…
What are the first batch of films set for release?
A Girl and Her Guard Dog 
お嬢と番犬くん 「Ojou to Banken-kun」
Release Date: March 14th, 2025
Duration: 106 mins.
Director: Keiichi Kobayashi
Writer: Yosuke Masaike (Screenplay) Hatsuharu (Original Manga)
Starring: Riko Fukumoto, Jesse Lewis, Nozomi Sasaki, Kaito Sakurai, Kisuke Iida, Tetta Sugimoto,
Website Twitter: @ojou_movie JFDB IMDB
Keiichi Kobayashi came to my attention with the indie film About the Pink Sky (2011) which played at Raindance over a decade ago. Ever since I saw it, I’ve had a film still on the side of this blog through various iterations.
Since then he’s also made Bon Lin (2014) and adapted manga and novels. His last film was Shinmai Kisha Torokko (2024). So what of this? It is based on a popular manga that has already been turned into a TV anime. This film stars Jesse of the male idol group SixTONES and its screenplay was written by Yosuke Masaike (Anime Supremacy (2022)).
Synopsis: Isaku Senagaki was raised by her grandfather from a young age because she lost her parents when she was a child. Her grandfather just so happens to be the head of a powerful yakuza gang and this caused Isaku trauma as a child. Wanting to live a normal high school life, she hides her identity. Keiya Uto, a 26-year-old yakuza is entrusted with protecting Isaku and so he falsifies his age and enrols at the same high school and begins to act like her bodyguard…
As for Me 
早乙女カナコの場合は 「Saotome Kanako no baai wa」
Release Date: March 14th, 2025
Duration: 119 mins.
Director: Hitoshi Yazaki
Writer: Masa Asanishi, Chiai Takeda (Screenplay) Asako Yuzuki (Original Novel)
Starring: Riko Fukumoto, Jesse Lewis, Nozomi Sasaki, Kaito Sakurai, Kisuke Iida, Tetta Sugimoto,
Website Twitter: @wands_movie JFDB IMDB
Hitoshi Yazaki is a long-time filmmaker and popular amongst a wider audience than J-movie aficionados since Afternoon Breezes (1980) and March Comes in Like a Lion (1991) have internet presence. His last film was Sakura (2020).
This is an adaptation of a novel by Asako Yuzuki. Two other works of hers have already been adapted for the silver screen, The Man Faces of Ito and The Hotel of My Dream. Leading lady Ai Hashimoto (Parks (2017)) had a role in that last film.
Synopsis: The life of clumsy and self-conscious Kanako Saotome, as well as her friends, is told over ten years, beginning with when she enters a university and meets and starts going out with Keishi, an aspiring screenwriter who is in the drama club, to her time after she graduates and gets a job at a major publishing company and pursues her dream of working as an editor. In that time, Nagatsuta never finished his screenplay and seems like he doesn’t intend on graduating from university any time soon either and he may be interested in a girl at his club. As they begins to bicker, Kanako receives a confession from her co-worker, a senior at the publisher named Yoshizawa…
Haru no kaori 
春の香り 「Haru no kaori」
Release Date: March 14th, 2025
Duration: 102 mins.
Director: Masato Tanno
Writer: Kamachi (Screenplay) Wakako Sakano, Takahiro Sakano, (Original Book)
Starring: Misaki, Arata Sato, Atsuko Sakurai, Ayana Shinozaki, Kento Hiramatsu, Shun Koutoku,
Website Twitter: @harunokaori_mov
Masato Tanno’s last film was Made in Heaven (2021) but looking further back in his filmography and it appears he was assistant director on multiple Takashi Miike projects including City of Lost Souls (2000), Gozu (2003) and others.
He was also AD on Ikki Katashima’s Kodokuna Rakuen (2024), which came out at the same time as lead actress Misaki’s last film, Shimaneko (2024). She was selected from about 1,000 people in an audition to play the role.
This is a fictionalized coming-of-age drama based on the true story of Haruka Sakano, who battled a brain tumour to become a manga artist. Her story was turned into a book by her parents.
Synopsis: Haruka is a high school girl who was diagnosed with a brain tumour while in elementary school. Despite this desperate situation, she still dreams of becoming a manga artist. When she meets Takumi, a boy sharing the same name of the main character in the romance manga she is writing, she finds herself experiencing romantic love for the first time. However, when Haruka’s brain tumour recurs she undergoes surgery which leaves her right hand paralysed. In the aftermath, she ends her relationship with Takumi, leaves school, and quits drawing manga. However, Haruka’s love for her family sustains her as she continues her recovery attempts and eventually rediscovers her affection for Takumi and starts drawing the manga’s sequel.
BATTLE KING!! Map of The Mind Epilogue
BATTLE KING!! Map of The Mind 終奏 「BATTLE KING!! Map of The Mind Shuso」
Release Date: March 14th, 2025
Duration: 90 mins.
Director: Genki Takigawa
Writer: Genki Takigawa, Keisuke Fukutani (Screenplay)
Starring: Eiku Yamashita, Hayato Takao, Naoya Kusakawa, Tetta Seki, Kenshin Kamimura, Rei Sawamura, Ryushin Tei, Fumina Hara, Yuki Shioya,
Website Twitter: @battlekingmovie
Synopsis: This looks like a continuation of a film from two years ago, Battle King!! We’ll Rise Again, the first part of a two-part sequel, and it features singers from Stardust Promotion‘s roster of dance and vocal groups. So we’re talking about members of ONE N’ ONLY, and BUDDiiS etc. It’s essentially a story of guys torn between the world of music and dance and proving themselves in a fighting arena.