It has been revealed that Takeda Kazuyoshi's manga "Peleliu: Guernica of Paradise," which depicts the young people who lived on Peleliu Island, a fierce battleground during the Pacific War, has been made into an anime and will be released as a theatrical anime on December 5th. The work was serialized in the manga magazine "Young Animal" (Hakusensha) from 2016 to 2021, and was a much-talked-about work that won the Excellence Award at the Japan Cartoonists Association Awards in 2017. It was announced that the anime would be made in 2021, when the original manga reached its final chapter, but it will now be released nationwide as an anime movie in 2025, the 80th anniversary of the end of the war.
The anime will be directed by Goro Kuji, who has worked on "Mato Seihei no Slave." This is Kuji's first time directing an anime movie. It will be produced by a team of Shinei Animation, known for "Doraemon" and "Crayon Shin-chan," and Fugaku, known for "Dog Signal." The screenplay will be written by the original author Takeda and Junji Nishimura. An image shot depicting the jungle of Peleliu Island and a special Teaser trailer using the same shot have been released.
"Peleliu: Guernica of Paradise" is set on Peleliu Island, the site of fierce fighting during the Pacific War, where 10,000 Japanese soldiers were sent and only 34 survived. It depicts the lives of young people living on the battlefield from the perspective of Tamaru, a soldier who aspires to be a manga artist. "Peleliu Gaiden" is currently being serialized irregularly.
◇Comment from Kazuyoshi Takeda
I am also involved in the production of the film as a supervisor and co-writer with veteran animation director Junji Nishimura. It took a really long time to complete the script. The original manga of "Peleliu" is 11 volumes long, excluding the side stories, so how do we incorporate this into the film? As the original author, I don't want it to end up like a bland digest if we try to include everything from the original. There was also an idea to carefully create only the first half of the original, but it still felt a little unsatisfying in terms of the story. And above all, this work is based not only on the original, but also on historical fact - a war 80 years ago. There are people who lived there. The script for the film version of "Peleliu", which was made with a lot of thought, is something that we can deliver with confidence to fans of the original. Now, I'm filled with the desire to see the lovable characters, such as Tamaru and Yoshiki, moving vividly across the screen. The animated film "Peleliu - Guernica of Paradise -" will be released on December 5th at the end of this year, so please look forward to further updates.
