Written by: Gabriel Castillo
Published on: August 26, 2021 at 21:21 PHT (GMT+8)
The official Twitter of Toei Films announced on Thursday that the animated film adaptation of Kana Ozawa’s manga “Blue Thermal – Aonagi Sports Festival Aviation Club (Aonagi Daigaku Taiiku-kai Koku-bu)” will have a theatrical release in Japan set for March 2022. In addition, a promotional video, teaser visual, and details of the cast and staff members were revealed.
The teaser visual posted above features the main cast against the brilliant blue sky as a background with the catch phrase “I fall in love with this sky” written. The tweet also announced the following cast members:
Mayu Hotta makes her voice acting debut and takes the role of the protagonist Tamaki Tsuru.
Nobunaga Shimazaki plays a glider club member named Jun Kuramochi.
Junya Enoki voices another glider club member named Daisuke Sorachi.
Masaki Tachibana, known for works like Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, .hack//Quantum, Barakamon, and others, directs the film while working on the script with Natsuko Takahashi, known for titles such as Farewell, My Dear Cramer, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, and many others. Telecom Animation Film is in charge of animation production while Toei handles distribution.
As part of the official announcement, there will be a “follow and RT/like” campaign for the film’s official Twitter and Instagram accounts. Six lucky fans (three from Twitter and three from Instagram) will be chosen as winners and will receive a teaser poster of the film signed by Mayu Hotta, Nobunaga Shimazaki, and Junya Enoki. The campaign period runs from August 26 to September 9. As of this writing, prizes can only be shipped to people residing in Japan. For more information on the campaign and its rules, check out the website here.
Ozawa’s manga follows the story of Tamaki Tsuru, a young lady that spent majority of her school life as an athlete. Upon entering college, she hoped to change things up and pursue a more romantic lifestyle. Things take a strange turn as she ends up joining the glider club at her university. The competition held high up in the sky fascinates the younge heroine and her companions. The story showcases young people in search of somewhere to belong. The term "Blue Thermal" refers to a phenomenon in which updrafts the often occur in cloudy conditions appeare under a blue sky. Check out the quick teaser trailer below:
The manga was serialized in Shinchosha’s Monthly Comic @Bunch magazine from April 2015 to November 2017 with a total of 5 volumes published. This title also inspired a 12-minute virtual reality film named Blue Thermal VR Hajimari no Sora which debuted in July 2018.
Source: Toei Films Official Twitter , Blue Thermal Film Official Website, Comic Natalie, Anime News Network
