If you’ve been waiting for a chance to catch Dive in Wonderland on a big screen in the U.S., you’ve got exactly one day to work with.
Crunchyroll confirmed last week that the film will screen in select U.S. theaters for a single day — November 16 — as part of its “Crunchyroll Anime Nights” program, the company’s ongoing push to get anime into cinemas across the country.
What the film actually is
The full title is Dive in Wonderland (Fushigi no Kuni de Alice to -Dive in Wonderland-, also rendered as With Alice in Wonderland: Dive in Wonderland). The staff initially described it as Japan’s first anime film adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.
That framing is worth a beat of skepticism — Carroll’s book has been referenced so heavily in anime and manga that “first adaptation” gets slippery depending on how you count. Still, as a straight film adaptation, this is a serious attempt.
Who’s behind it
- Director: Toshiya Shinohara (Black Butler, A Lull in the Sea, The aquatope on white sand)
- Studio: P.A. Works
- Script: Yūko Kakihara (Blue Box, Urusei Yatsura 2022)
- Production coordinators: Shochiku and TBS
- Theme song: “Zukan” (Guidebook) by SEKAI NO OWARI
That’s a solid lineup. Shinohara and Kakihara have worked together before at P.A. Works, and the studio’s track record with atmospheric, visually driven material fits this source material well.
The source
Lewis Carroll’s original follows a girl named Alice who follows a talking white rabbit down a hole and ends up in a strange world with surreal rules and stranger residents. It’s one of the most referenced works in popular culture, with motifs showing up across anime, manga, games, and basically everything else.
It’s not the first time Japan has animated it either — Nippon Animation and Apollo Film produced a television anime adaptation across 1983–1984. So this film is less “first ever” and more “first theatrical feature-length anime version.” Which, to be fair, is a meaningful distinction.
Should you plan for it?
One-day-only screenings are the worst kind of release if you miss them, and anime films in this format rarely get a second window announced in advance. If you want to see it in a theater, set a reminder for November 16 now and check Crunchyroll’s Anime Nights listings for participating locations closer to the date.
We’ll update this piece with the full theater list and ticket details as soon as they’re announced.
