A teaser trailer for the upcoming anime adaptation of Mizuki Tsujimura’s novel Lonely Castle in the Mirror (かがみの孤城, Kagami no Kojō) has been released. The Lonely Castle in the Mirror release date is confirmed for December 23, 2022.
It has also been clarified that actress Ami Tōma will be voicing the novel’s protagonist Kokoro.
Alongside the trailer, a new key visual has also popped up, listing additional staff.
The Lonely Castle in the Mirror anime: What we know so far
A-1 Pictures is charged with production, while Shochiku is distributing the anime.
The staff includes:
- Keiichi Hara (The Wonderland) — director
- Miho Maruo (Hara’s Miss Hokusai) — script writer
- Keigo Sasaki (ERASED) — character designer, chief animation director
- Ilya Kuvshinov (The Wonderland) — brainstorming visual concept, castle design
- Harumi Fuuki — music composer
Just on July 21, 2022, the Kagami no Kojō official website released a short trailer, providing a sneak peek of the main character Kokoro, who also narrates the trailer.
The plot revolves around a mysterious castle where seven teenagers find themselves after waking up one day to discover that their bedroom mirrors are shining. The castle holds a secret; namely, the protagonists are confronted with a set of clues leading to a hidden room capable of granting one wish.
However, there’s a catch: if they fail to leave the castle by 5 o’clock, they’ll be punished. The teenagers soon discover that to find the hidden room and save themselves, they will have to share their secrets with each other.
About The Lonely Castle in the Mirror novel
Lonely Castle in the Mirror was originally published in Japan by Poplar Publishing on May 11, 2017. The novel proved an immediate success, winning the grand prize in the King’s Brunch Book Prize 2017 and the 2018 Japan Booksellers’ Award. Poplar Publishing thereby re-released the novel in a two-volume paperback format (March 2021). Doubleday published an English translation of the novel in April 2021. Erewhon will release a hardcover English edition on October 18, 2022.
On a side note, Mizuki Tsujimura previously (2014) published Anime Supremacy! (ハケンアニメ!, Haken Anime!). Illustrated by CLAMP, the novel was adapted into a stage play in 2019 and a live-action movie in 2022. The film premiered in Japan on May 20, 2022. The novel was published by Vertical in English in October 2017.
Earlier still (2004), Tsujimura published the A School Frozen in Time novel series (冷たい校舎の時は止まる, Tsumetai Kōsha no Toki wa Tomaru), which won the Mephisto Prize in the same year. A manga adaptation of the novel illustrated by Naoshi Arakawa (Your Lie in April) was serialized in Kodansha’s Monthly Shōnen Magazine from December 2007 to April 2009. The individual chapters have been collected into four tankōbon volumes. Vertical has licensed the manga series for English-speaking audiences.