Toho unveils 2011 slate, with new Studio Ghibli film for next summer

Kokurikozaka Kara (literal translation: “From Kokuriko Hill”) will see the return of Studio Ghibli’s Goro Miyazaki to the director’s chair five years after 2006’s Tales From Earthsea, his debut.  

Based on Chizuru Takahashi and Tetsuro Sayama’s eponymous manga first published in 1980, Kokurikozaka Kara is a coming of age story of a high school girl living near the ports of Yokohama in the 1960s.

Goro’s legendary father Hayao Miyazaki will oversee the production and co-write the screenplay with Tales and The Borrowers scribe Keiko Niwa. Toshio Suzuki will produce. Toho will distribute the film next summer.

Toho’s 31-title slate, which encompassed December titles Bleach, Space Battleship Yamato and Norwegian Wood, also included Once In A Blue Moon (autumn 2011), the latest comedy from Magic Hour and Suite Dreams director Koki Mitani, Takashi Yamazaki-directed CG animation title Friends; Mononoke Shima no Naki (December 2011), and two-part futuristic action films Gantz and Gantz: Part II released on January 29 and April 23 respectively.

Sequels also figure into the slate with the second and final part of current hit police thriller SP (March 12), a follow-up to Fuji TV’s 2009 success Amalfi set in Spain (fall), and continuations to female detective film Unfair (fall) and gambling thriller Kaiji (fall).

As annual moneymakers for Toho, new installments in the Pokemon, Doraemon, Crayon Shinchan, Naruto and Detective Conan animated franchises will also be released.