‘A Silent Voice’ Set For U.S. Release In October

A Silent Voice, a film that received plenty of positive notices when it was released in Japan last year, launches in U.S. theaters on October 20, 2017. Eleven Arts Anime Studios is the U.S. distributor.

Directed by Naoko Yamada (K-On!) and written by Reiko Yoshida (Digimon, Girls und Panzer), A Silent Voice is based on the manga of the same name by Yoshitoki Oima. The 130-minute film follows the story of Shoya Ishida, a school bully, and Shoko Nishimiya, a deaf mute girl victimized by Ishida’s bullying, and explores how their lives intersect as they grow older.

Produced by Kyoto Animation, A Silent Voice earned nearly $20 million during its Japanese theatrical run, placing it as the tenth-highest-grossing locally-produced film of 2016 in its native Japan.

The film won the Tokyo Anime Award Festival’s Anime Film of the Year and the Japan Movie Critics Awards’ Best Animation of the Year. It was also nominated for the Japan Academy Prize’s Animation of the Year, alongside Your Name, Rudolf the Black Cat, One Piece Film: Gold, and In This Corner of the World, the latter of which ultimately won the award.

Eleven Arts also recently announced that it will give a two-day theatrical release next month to the 1979 film Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro, the directorial debut of Hayao Miyazaki. Tickets for screenings of that film are available right now on the Fathom website.