The first full-length trailer for the anime movie adaptation of Kazuki Sakuraba’s novel Fuse: A Gun Girl’s Detective Story (Fuse Teppō Musume no Torimonochō) was released last week and I am even more excited at the prospect of this historical fantasy anime movie which reminds me of Duelist.
The story follows a teenage girl named Hamaji who joins her brother in hunting dog-human hybrids known as Fuse as part of a karmic cycle of retribution. The movie is based on the novel Fuse Gansaku: Satomi Hakkenden which was written by Kazuki Sakuraba, author of the Gosick light novels. She was inspired by a 19th century epic novel series named Nansō Satomi Hakkenden written by late Edo Period popular author Kyokutei Bakin. His tales dealt with themes based on Buddhist philosophy, Confucianism, and Bushido as it followed eight samurai serving the Satomi clan during the Sengoku (Warring States) period. These samurai are the reincarnations of the spirits that Princess Fuse mothered with a dog named Yatsufusa and they each represent a Confucianist virtue.
Although this isn’t the first time Kyokutei’s story has been adapted into modern mediums like anime – it had a 1999 sci-fi TV anime series named Shin Hakkenden and the story was 
adapted for the video game Okami – it is the first time it has been made into a movie. The film is directed by Masayuki Miyaji (Eureka Seven, Xam’d: Lost Memories). The script comes from Ichiro Okouchi who is the scriptwriter for episodes of Azumanga Daioh and the Berserk movie adaptations. Music comes from Michiru Oshima who has composed the music for Production I.G.s historial fantasy Le Chevalier D’Eon. Okama is in charge of design and he has worked on the recent Evangelion anime movies.
Hamaji is voiced by Minako Kotobuki (Yūko Nishi in A-Channel) and she is supported my Mamoru Miyano (Rintarō Okabe in Steins;Gate), Maaya Sakamoto (Hitomi in Escaflowne and Akashi in Tatami Galaxy), and Hiroshi Kamiya (Kou in Arakawa Under the Bridge).
The film is released on the 20th of October!
Staff: Masayuki Miyaji (Director) Ichiro Okouchi (Script), Seiichi Hashimoto (Character Design), Okama (Design), Kazuki Sakuraba (Original Novelist), Michiru Oshima (Music), Chara (Movie Theme Song)
Voice Actors: Minako Kotobuki (Hamaji), Mamoru Miyano (Shino), Hirofumi Nojima (Iesada Tokugawa), MHiroshi Kamiya (Makuwari), Kanako Miyamoto (Meido), Katsuyuki Konishi (ousetsu), Maaya Sakamoto (Funamushi)
Studio: TMS Entertainment
Genkinahito 
October’s so far off… but maybe that’s not a bad thing, plenty of lovely things happening in between.
Did you watch the 1999 anime series?
Nope. I think 1999 was a period when I stopped watching anime and just started to binge on live-action films 😛 I’ll have to check my Anime Heroines’ Posts/
Wow, you started watching anime… a long time ago!
I might have been too young to have watched some of those titles. I didn’t even know it was Japanese back then 😛
That suddenly makes me feel old. But maybe that’s because I have been conscious of Japan (and Asia generally) since I was aged two because that’s when we moved to Asia and had friends from Japan. And adopted words like “oshibori” and “moshi moshi” permanently into the family vocabulary 🙂 And when we almost went on a visit to Japan, except that my Dad, sister & I caught a stomach bug and we ended up not going (my poor, disappointed mom).
Still haven’t made it to Japan (though my family has).
Ah, so cool. Not the stomach bug bit although if I were you I would have gritted my teeth and dragged myself out of sickness to get to Japan.
If I were in your mother’s position I would have just gone by myself and left you lot in hospital and brought back souvenirs 😛 but then I guess she’s not cruel like me.
Which part of Asia did you go to (if you don’t mind me asking)?
I have not been to Japan yet either. It’s on my things to do list. If I ever get my act together and go out there you’ll hear it first.
私も 日本 に いきたい です。
Well, I don’t think my mother had the heart to abandon three sick people (2 of them toddlers).
I lived in Thailand for a couple of a years when I was a toddler (and visited a gazillion times since then), and later in Taiwan at age 11, and have visited other countries in the area – my Dad is still based in Asia for work (you will see where next week… because that’s what I’m abandoning London for!).
I’m determined to move to Asia (with Japan & S. Korea on the top of my list) after my PhD, I need to get out of Europe again!
You should just go. It’s definitely possible, you just need to take that first step and you might never return to live in your native country. 😀
You’ve had some awesome experiences then!
You’ve got such guts to travel. I’m a little too lackadaisical but since this is the year when I make a massive change in my personality I might take your advice.
There’s a chap who is taking Japanese/Korean languages at uni in my Japanese class. I’m guessing you’re doing something similar. I should have done that.
I’m intrigued by where you are heading and I hope you continue to post from where you are heading to. I’ll be here in the UK watching Japanese films.
I plan on taking Japanese/Korean classes starting in the autumn, because independent studying didn’t get me far. (The PhD is enough independent studying to handle.)
I’m not sure it’s guts that I have, it’s just that I don’t know any other way of living. But I get it can be intimidating if you have never lived somewhere else before, especially somewhere radically different (different language, another continent, etc.). It will have its ups and downs, but you might end up loving it – you should give it a try, living elsewhere, rather than just travelling. Even if just for a year (though I would generally recommend 2 years).
Yes, I will be posting, I will just be hanging at my Dad’s, bringing uni work plus a pile of DVDs.
“I should have done that.” At the risk of sounding like one of those awful self-help books – you can still do the things you want!
I’d like to go to Japan and hold a conversation in Japanese with a Japanese person. Go to a cinema and watch a few films. I’ll do that eventually.
Anyway, independent study can be hard since you have nobody checking on you but the only way to do it is get stuck in. One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to write Kanji every day and I do that.
I find it useful to converse with other learners online using Japanese since it forces us to venture beyond text books.
Thanks for the heads up on Fuse. With everyone involved in its production, I’m sure this movie will be very enjoyable.
Thanks for the comment. This anime has captured my imagination. The seiyuu involved are awesome (Mamoru Miyano is good fun as Okabe in Steins;Gate) and the staff have worked on some excellent projects (Ichiro Okouchi’s work on Azumanga Daioh and Berserk tells me that the writing here should be interesting).