A stage greeting for the revival screening of the Japanese dubbed version of the popular Chinese animated film "The Legend of Hei," "The Legend of Hei: The Future I Choose," was held at Shinjuku Wald 9 (Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo) on November 1st, with Kana Hanazawa, who plays Xiaohei, and Takahiro Sakurai, who plays Fu Xi, taking to the stage. The film is also attracting attention as a new film, "The Legend of Hei 2: The Future We Want," will be released on November 7th, and Hanazawa said, "It's incredibly interesting!"
The new film is set two years after the previous one. Hanazawa said, "The quality of the visuals, especially the action scenes, has evolved," and expressed her appeal by saying, "The previous film was already great, but the quality has improved even more. Xiaohei fights with a small body, but there are so many reactions that I thought I was going to die during the filming."
Sakurai also commented on the new film, saying, "There's definitely been an evolution." In the previous film, the characters moved around a lot in the action scenes, so "we couldn't compare the script with the footage while recording, so we memorized the script to a certain extent and recorded in sync with the movements. But this time... you worked hard," to which Hanazawa replied, "You worked hard!"
The stage greeting on this day was held to commemorate Xiaohei's birthday, which was on November 1st, and a birthday cake was brought on stage to celebrate Xiaohei's birthday together with the audience.
"The Legend of Hei: The Future I Choose" tells the story of Xiaohei, a black cat fairy who is driven out of the forest due to environmental destruction, who meets the fairy Fu Xi and Mugen, the strongest human enforcer, and becomes embroiled in a major incident that shakes up the relationship between humans and fairies.
The film was produced by Chinese animator and animation director MTJJ and Hanmu Chunhua (HMCH) Studio. The web anime series was released on a video site in March 2011 and gained popularity, followed by a theatrical release. The theatrical version was a hit, grossing approximately 315 million RMB (approximately 4.9 billion yen) at the box office in China. A subtitled version was released in Japan in September 2019, and a Japanese dubbed version was released in November 2020. The dubbed version had a long run of about six months, grossing over 520 million yen at the box office.
The new film, "The Legend of Hei 2: The Future We Want," is set two years after the previous film. Xiaohei lives a peaceful life in a small village with his master, Mugen, until an attack on a certain hall threatens the long-standing peace of the fairy world. As they face one threat after another, Xiaohei and his senior disciple, Ruye, embark on a new adventure in search of the truth... This is the story. The Japanese dubbed and subtitled versions will be released simultaneously on November 7th.
