OVERVIEW

OVERVIEW
The Girl from the Other Side tells a story of acceptance, coexistence and being human (again). Released in Japan September 2019, it's the first anime adaptation from the best-selling eponymous comic book series written and illustrated by manga artist Nagabe. The short is directed by two young animators, Yutaro Kubo and Satomi Maiya,, whose works have screened in Annecy, Ottawa, Hiroshima and Zagreb. Music is composed by post-jazz trio Schroeder-Headz. Animation is produced by Wit Studio (Great Pretender, Attack on Titan, The Ancient Magus' Bride) while world distribution is handled by Production I.G. The original comic book started serializing in Japan from September 2015 and it is currently counting 8 volumes, which grossed more than 600,000 copies in Japan alone. It has been translated in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Polish, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese, and it was nominated for the Best Comic award at the 45th Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2018. In the United States, the American Library Association's (ALA's) Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) ranked the series on its list of Great Graphic Novels for Teens in 2018 and 2019. The animated short had its world premiere as closing film at Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival 2019, and was selected at Clermont-Ferrand, Stuttgart, Ottawa and Hiroshima.

Watch the international trailer here.

STORY
Touch not the Outsiders, lest ye become an Outsider.
But when two creatures belonging to opposite kinds -a lost little girl from the Inside and a demonic beast-looking Outsider- initiate an impossible coexistence on the same side of the forest, their bond seems to transcend their incompatible natures and the unnamed curse that has divided the world. It is the beginning of a folktale about two outcasts -one human, one inhuman- who linger in the hazy twilight that separates night from day.

Yutaro Kubo (Director) Born in Beppu in 1990, Kubo is a freelance visual artist who graduated from the Tokyo Polytechnic University and studied under Academy award-nominee Koji Yamamura at the Tokyo University of the Arts. He has directed a number of hand-drawn style animated short films that screened at major festivals. Notably individual works include Kicking Rocks (2013, PISAF Best Online Work Prize), and the eight-second short 00:08 (2014, Best Gallery Film at Anima Mundi 2014, competition at Annecy, Ottawa and Zagreb).

Satomi Maiya (Director) Born in Sendai in 1990, Maiya is an animator and illustrator who graduated from the Tokyo Polytechnic University and studied under Academy award-nominee Koji Yamamura at the Tokyo University of the Arts. Many of her works feature pastel techniques, and screened at major animation festivals such as Annecy and Hiroshima. She often collaborates with Yutaro Kubo, like in the music video Tarareba (2017) for the Japanese rock act Amazarashi, and she is appreciated in the industry for her delicate and heart-warming visual style.

© 2019 NAGABE / MAG Garden, Production I.G