Anime Expo to Host Makoto Shinkai & His Latest Film's World Premiere 

Anime Expo to Host Makoto Shinkai & His Latest Film\'s World Premiere

The Anime Expo convention will host writer/director

), on July 3. The premiere is planned for a hall that can hold over 3,000 attendees. The auteur director of

, and several other popular anime will also hold a panel at the Los Angeles event.

Shinkai started creating his own anime titles almost single-handedly, being responsible for the writing, directing, and even voice-acting. Shinkai\'s previous works include

Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below

film\'s "story of miracles and love" revolves around Mitsuha and Taki. Mitsuha is a female high school student who lives in a rural town nestled deep in the mountains. Her father is the mayor and isn\'t at home much, and she lives with her elementary school-aged little sister and her grandmother. Mitsuha has an honest personality, but she doesn\'t like the customs of her family\'s Shinto shrine, nor does she like her father participating in an election campaign. She laments that she lives in a confined rural town, and yearns for the wonderful lifestyle of living in Tokyo. Taki is a male high school student who lives in central Tokyo. He spends time with his friends, works part-time at an Italian restaurant, and is interested in architecture and fine arts. One day, Mitsuha has a dream where she is a young man. Taki also has a dream where he is a female high school student in a town in the mountains that he has never been to. What is the secret to their dreams of personal experience?

Boy: On that day... That day when stars fell from the sky... It was almost like...

Text: Japan prepares for the arrival of a meteor in a thousand years.

Text: A high school boy who lives in the heart of the city - Taki

Taki: After school? Sorry, I have my part-time job after this.

Mitsuha: I am so sick of the boonies. I am so sick of this kind of life. Please make me a hot boy from Tokyo in my next life!

Mitsuha: Come to think of it, it kind of feels like I was having a weird dream this whole time. A dream of someone else\'s life...?

Text: The meeting of two people who will never meet

Mitsuha: There is one certain thing: We\'ll know as soon as we see each other.

Taki: I had been thinking to tell you that wherever you are in the world, I\'m going to go and see you no matter what!

(Bottom row, from left to right in image above) Ryō Narita and Aoi Yūki will play Mitsuha\'s classmates Katsuhiko Teshigawara and Sayaka Natori, respectively. Nobunaga Shimazaki and Kaito Ishikawa will play Taki\'s classmates Tsukasa Fujii and Shinta Takagi, respectively. Child actor Kanon Tani will play Mitsuha\'s younger sister Yotsuba Miyamizu.-->

As in his previous works, Shinkai is both directing the new film and writing the script.

is animating the film. RADWIMPS is composing over 20 tracks for the film\'s soundtrack, but is not composing the film\'s actual theme song.

(The tagline on the below key visual reads, "I am searching for you, whom I have never met yet.")

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