发布时间: 12/31/2025
Renowned anime director Shoji Kawamori, known for smash-hit franchises like the "Macross" series and the "Aquarion" series, and currently serving as a theme project producer for the Osaka-Kansai Expo, is stepping into a new chapter with his first completely original feature-length anime film, "Labyrinth Bookmark". The movie is slated to hit Japanese theaters on January 1, 2026, positioning it as a New Year event release that anime fans will want on their calendar from day one.
This theatrical project weaves together Kawamori’s signature pillars of music, vocals, and bold SF (science fiction) with ultra-relatable "smartphone life" moments that anyone in the digital age will recognize. The story plays out as an emotional coming-of-age escape drama set in a mysterious other world, built around high-school youth, identity, and technology. While it clearly bears the DNA of classic Kawamori works, the film also pushes into a fresh creative field, signaling his ambition to challenge audience expectations again.
The protagonist is shy high school girl Shiori Maezawa, who suddenly finds herself lost inside the world of a smartphone. Her voice is performed by SUZUKA from the group Atarashii Gakko no Leaders, bringing an energetic yet vulnerable tone to the character. Inside this digital world, she meets Komori, a rabbit-sticker character brought to life as a talking stamp, voiced by comedian Taizo Harada (Neptune). Shiori’s childhood friend Kisei is played by Ao Ito, while her classmate Yamada is portrayed by Jun Saito, rounding out a cast that leans into real, grounded teen dynamics and casual classroom banter.
Another key figure is Suguru Kagami, a young genius entrepreneur and researcher working on directly linking smartphones with the human brain. His voice is handled by Takuto Teranishi (timelesz), whose casting has already drawn significant buzz among anime and J‑pop fans. The combination of Kawamori’s sci-fi vision and a character experimenting at the very edge of brain-tech and mobile connectivity gives the film a hook that should also resonate with viewers who follow tech trends and smartphone culture.
Teranishi celebrates his birthday on December 31, and to mark the occasion, character designer Risa Ebata—a long-time Kawamori collaborator on multiple titles—created an exclusive celebratory illustration for this project. Ebata, who also designs the characters in "Labyrinth Bookmark," leans into Teranishi’s member color, light blue, to anchor the visual. In the illustration, Teranishi and his character Kagami stand with gentle, refreshing smiles, while a cake decorated with a smartphone with a cracked screen—the device that sets the entire story in motion—sits in front of them. The rabbit stamp Komori also appears, turning the piece into a warm, slightly playful visual that celebrates both the film’s upcoming release and Teranishi’s birthday in one frame.
Alongside the illustration, a new production still has been released, showing Teranishi holding Asurada, a machine that longtime fans of Kawamori’s work will recognize immediately. Asurada is the main racing machine from Kawamori’s earlier anime series "Future GPX Cyber Formula", where it served as the protagonist’s car and a core symbol of speed and evolution. The appearance of Asurada in this new film raises obvious questions for fans: how exactly will this legendary machine connect with Suguru Kagami, the character voiced by Teranishi, and what role will it play in the smartphone‑labyrinth narrative?
Story Overview
Shiori Maezawa, a reserved and introverted high school girl voiced by SUZUKA, lives a fairly quiet life, never quite comfortable being the center of attention. One day, a certain video she records together with her best friend Kisei (voiced by Ao Ito) triggers an unexpected incident. Because of this single video, Shiori is suddenly swallowed up and trapped inside a strange, expansive world that exists within a smartphone. The everyday device she relies on without thinking turns into the entrance to a place that feels both familiar and disturbingly unreal.
Right in front of the bewildered Shiori appears Komori, a talking stamp in the shape of a rabbit, voiced by Taizo Harada. With a slightly dry but matter‑of‑fact tone, Komori tells her, "You’ve been locked up here, inside this Labyrinth." As Shiori stands there, at a total loss and on the verge of panic, a hand reaches out to her. It belongs to Suguru Kagami, the young genius founder working on direct smartphone–brain interfaces, played by Takuto Teranishi. Kagami calmly assures her that he will help her "take back [her] true self," offering a promise that sounds like salvation—but also carries a hint of mystery.
Meanwhile, in the real world, a second "SHIORI" appears, having swapped places with the original Shiori. This alternate SHIORI sports a much flashier style, projecting confidence with bold fashion and a fearless attitude. She throws herself into social media, using SNS to act as freely and impulsively as she wants, unconcerned with how others see her. However, this alter ego has a clear goal: she intends to completely replace the real Shiori and become the only "Shiori" that exists in everyone’s eyes.
Kagami quietly makes contact with this SHIORI as well and whispers to her about "a certain plan." What he proposes—and what he truly wants—remains intentionally unclear, creating a tense triangle among Kagami, the Shiori trapped in the smartphone labyrinth, and the flamboyant SHIORI moving freely through social media. As Kagami’s hidden agenda and SHIORI’s ambition begin to overlap and amplify each other, their actions gradually spiral beyond personal identity games. Before long, they trigger a larger incident that pulls in the broader world, turning Shiori’s struggle for her own sense of self into a conflict with global consequences.