Entertainment news website Deadline reported on Sunday that Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe (Kidō Senshi Gundam: Senkō no Hathaway – Circe no Majo), the second film of the Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway (Kidō Senshi Gundam Senkō no Hathaway) anime project, earned an estimated US$810,000 and ranked at #13 in its U.S. opening weekend. The film screened in 894 theaters and earned an estimated US$428,000 on Friday, an estimated US$230,000 on Saturday, and an estimated US$152,000 on Sunday. 

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie — Nintendo, Illumination, and Universal Pictures‘ sequel to The Super Mario Bros. Movie — has earned US$4,450,000 ranking at #6 in its seventh week in the U.S. box office. The film screened in 2,793 theaters and earned an estimated US$1,060,000 on Friday, an estimated US$1,970,000 on Saturday, and an estimated US$1,420,000 on Sunday. The film currently has a cumulative earning of US$418,619,015 in the U.S. box office.

Additionally, GKIDS‘ limited two-night screening of Shōji Kawamori‘s original animation film Labyrinth (Meikyū no Shiori) on May 10-11 earned a total of US$39,935. The film earned US$20,626 on May 10, and US$18,887 on May 11.

The Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe film opened on January 30 in 365 theaters in Japan. The film was delayed from a planned 2025 release. The film ranked at #1 in its opening weekend, and sold 511,500 tickets and earned 849,068,760 yen (about US$5.43 million) in its first three days.

The film has earned a cumulative total of 2,303,090,620 yen (about US$14.49 million), as of March 1. The new box office total makes the second Gundam Hathaway film the #4 Gundam film at the Japanese box office, after 2024’s Mobile Suit Gundam Seed FREEDOM with 5,301,101,120 yen (about US$34 million at the time, including Special Edition screenings), 2025’s Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning-, and 1982’s Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space with 2.3 billion yen (about US$14.47 million in current conversion).

The main cast and most of the staff returned from the first film, but Yuichi Kuboki joined Takako Suzuki as a color key artist. Yoshinori Sayama (Macross Plus, Cowboy Bebop, Mobile Suit Gundam UC) is credited for display designs after contributing to the first film. Yoshihisa Ōyama is the new film’s compositing director of photography, and Manabu Kamitōno directed the visual effects.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie earned an estimated US$190,053,455 in its first five days in North America to open at #1. It earned an estimated US$372.5 million worldwide in its first five days.

The film opened at #1 at the Japanese box office on April 24. The film sold 1.121 million tickets and earned 1,601,093,600 yen (about US$10.07 million) in its first three days.

Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri and Nintendo representative director and fellow Shigeru Miyamoto again produced Illumination and Universal Pictures‘ new film. Directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic and screenwriter Matthew Fogel returned from the previous film for the new project. Brian Tyler returned to compose the soundtrack.

GKIDS screened the Labyrinth film in Japanese with English subtitles and with an English dub. The film opened in Japan on January 1. Kawamori (Macross, Aquarion, AKB0048, Arjuna) directed the anime, his first feature-length animated film not based on an existing franchise, at SANZIGEN. The original story concept was credited to the companies Slow Curve, Vector Vision, GAGA, and Fuji Television, and Slow Curve was also credited with planning and producing the project. Risa Ebata (Macross Frontier, AKB0048) designed the characters, and Taichi Hashimoto (Listeners, Gate Keepers 21) wrote the script.

Sources: Deadline (Jill Goldsmith), Box Office Mojo (link 2, link 3, link 4)

The official website for the television anime of author Eroki and artist Shinko Konoshiro‘s KAMUI: He’s Behind You (Ushiro no Shōmen Kamui-san) manga revealed the anime’s ending theme song “SAY-BYE!!” by KOTOKO in a new teaser promotional video, on Monday.

The anime will debut in July.

The anime stars:

• Tomokazu Sugita as Kamui
• Riko Aono as Shizuka Mimitsuka
• M.A.O as Oichi
• Yuka Aisaka as Kyōko
• Shiori Izawa as Inagawa

Takumi Tsukumo (Divergence Eve, Misaki Chronicles original creator) is directing the anime at Zero-G, and ZG-R. Motofumi Nakajō (Ai: Tenchi Muyo! episode scripts, Maji de Otaku na English! Ribbon-chan: Eigo de Tatakau Mahō Shōjo the TV) is in charge of series scripts, and Toshinari Yamashita (Amazing Nurse Nanako, Divergence Eve) is designing the characters.

Additional staff members include:

• Sub-Character Designer: Nana Hiiragi
• Color Key Artist: Takuya Kawami
• Chief Animation Directors: Takayuki Noguchi, Tomoyuki Abe
• Art Director: Shinji Katahira (Studio Arkansas)
• Art Setting: Junichirō Nishikawa
• Compositing Director of Photography: Tatsuya Yanagihara
• Editing: Masaki Utsunomiya
• Sound Directors: Shūhei Abe (on-air version), “Nankai-Teiō” (full Deregula version)
• Music: Chihiro Endō

WWWave Corporation‘s Deregula anime label is producing the anime.

The story follows Shizuka, a high school girl who can see ghosts. She works as an assistant to the famous psychic Kamui, who has an unusual method for exorcism.

Eroki and Konoshiro debuted the manga in March 2020 on Shogakukan‘s Manga ONE app. Shogakukan published the manga’s 12th compiled book volume on February 19.

WWWave Corporation owns the ComicFesta web manga service, as well as the AnimeFesta anime programming block.

Source: KAMUI: He’s Behind You anime’s website via Ota-Suke

Thailand’s Sitsiri Mongkolsiri directs Japanese-Thai-S. Korean co-production

Toei, Thai film studio M Studio, and South Korean production company Showbox announced on Monday that they are collaboring to produce a live-action film adaptation of Junji Ito‘s “The Long Hair in the Attic” (Yaneura no Nagai Kami) horror manga one-shot. Thai film director Sitisiri Mongkolsiri (The Red Line, Hunger, Inhuman Kiss) is directing the film. The staff plans to finish development on the film this year, and then begin filming in 2027.

The manga’s story begins with a long-haired girl named Chiemi, whose boyfriend breaks up with her, saying that they don’t belong together. After the breakup, Chiemi recalls how she initially had short hair, but grew it out after her now ex-boyfriend told her that he liked girls with long hair. She takes the opportunity to decide that she will cut out her hair. When Chiemi’s sister Eri tries to find a pair of scissors to cut Chiemi’s hair, she hears Chiemi scream, and finds Chiemi’s decapitated body.

Ito’s one-shot manga debuted in Asahi Sonorama‘s Monthly Halloween magazine in 1988. The manga has been adapted into a Japanese live-action film in 2000, and has also been adapted as an anime episode in the Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre 2023 omnibus series.

In English, the manga was released three times: in 2000 with ComicsOne‘s Flesh Colored Horror collection, in 2006 with the third volume of Dark Horse Comics‘ Museum of Terror collection, and in 2021 with Viz Media‘s Deserter: Junji Ito Story Collection release.

Source: Comic Natalie