The official website for Kōhei Kadowaki and NOTHING NEW‘s We Are Aliens (Ware Ware wa Uchūjin) anime film announced more cast members for the film on Thursday.

The new cast members include Gaku Sano as Tsubasa’s friend Seiya Toda (both upper left in image above), Reika Ōzeki as young Seiya (both upper right), Arisa Sasaki as Toda’s friend Elmo Matsushita (both lower left), and Edo Harumi as a calligraphy teacher (both lower right).

We Are Aliens centers on Tsubasa and Gyōtarō, two boys who as elementary school students became close friends, but jealousy and misunderstandings eventually drove them apart. Years have passed and the two boys have gone in different directions in life. But when the memories from their past come back, they must face what happened between them years ago.

The film stars Ryōta Bandō (Fureru., live-action How to Train Your Dragon’s Japanese dub) as Tsubasa, and Amane Okayama (Blue Giant, live-action I”s, Hirayasumi) as Gyōtarō, when both characters are young adults. Child actors Yūto Maki and Tasuku Nakagome — who were both selected through auditions — voice Tsubasa and Gyōtarō, respectively, when they were younger. Other cast members include Sakurazaka46 idol group member Ten Yamasaki as Konatsu, and comedian Kemuri Matsui as Batahara.

Kadowaki, who created the second BEASTARS season’s ending sequence and music videos for YOASOBI, served as the film’s planner, scriptwriter, director, storyboard artist, and editor. Yaffle, who previously produced music for Fujii Kaze, Kenshi Yonezu, and others, composed the music. NOTHING NEW planned and produced the upcoming film, and French studio Miyu Productions (Ghost Cat Anzu, A New Dawn) collaborated on the production, after joining on the project in June 2025. adieu performs the film’s theme song “Sasakure” (Split).

The film will open in Japan on September 25. The film screened at the Directors’ Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival on May 14, and screened in competition at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, which began ran from June 21 to 27. The Ottawa International Film Festival (OIAF), the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), and New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) will screen the film. OIAF takes place from September 23-27, MIFF takes place from August 6-23, and NZIFF takes place from July 29-August 9. 

Sales company CHARADES licensed the film to the distributors Hooray Films in Taiwan, Shaw Organisation in Singapore, Intercontinental Film Distributors in Hong Kong, and Sahamongkol Film in Thailand. CHARADES is handling international sales of the film.

The staff launched a crowdfunding campaign in November on the Motion Gallery website. The campaign aimed to cover production and advertising costs, specifically to “improve the quality of the work” and to “distribute the film more widely.” The campaign ended on March 2 and exceeded its 8 million yen (about US$50,365) target and raised 9,604,510 (about US$60,467) yen.

NOTHING NEW is a small film company that was founded in 2022 with the aim “to create a world where talent is not crushed.”

Sources: PR Times, Comic Natalie