Bandai Namco Filmworks released the full trailer for ghost – end of night on November 10, along with a second key visual, the theme song, and a batch of new cast and staff credits. The film is Shingo Natsume's first original anime movie as a director, and it opens in Japan on February 11, 2027.
The trailer runs on "life" by hitsujibungaku, the rock band behind the film's insert song "Sugar." That makes hitsujibungaku responsible for both pieces of music the film has shown so far.
The new cast
Five names were added:
- Takeo Ōtsuka as Bora, described as Neekei's predecessor and a man who loves beautiful things
- Kazuhiro Yamaji as Ahab, an elderly homeless man who hates the world
- Yūki Shin as Structure, a man who holds special privileges similar to Neekei's
- Hina Yomiya as MIke, a girl afraid of being selected
- Atsumi Tanezaki as the son of Masu
They join Mayu Hotta, who plays the lead, Neekei, and Issei Takahashi as Masu. Bandai Namco Filmworks notes that the romanization of Masu's name is not yet official.
The crew filling out behind Natsume
The studio had already announced the top of the credits. Natsume directs at Madhouse and wrote the script himself. Natsume Ono, the manga creator behind ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. and Ristorante Paradiso, designed the original characters, and Norifumi Kugai adapted those designs for animation.
The new credits cover the departments that decide how a film actually looks and sounds:
- Costume styling: Mana Yamamoto
- Costume design: Kana Itō
- Tattoo design: Mine Moea
- Assistant director: Keita Nagasaka
- Compositing director of photography and video direction: Akane Fushihara
- Action animator: Gōsei Oda
- In-between check: Akane Ōguchi
- Art director: Yukiko Maruyama
- Color key artist: Ayaka Nakamura
- CG visual programmer: Kezzardrix
- Editing: Kashiko Kimura
- Sound director: Shōji Hata
- Sound effects: Noriko Izumo
- Music: Ōzora Kimishima
A tattoo designer and a dedicated action animator are not names that show up in every credit block, which says something about how specific the film's visual identity is meant to be.
What the film is about
The setting is a near future where labor is no longer necessary. Neekei is a girl who keeps looking for what is real while pushing back against the order of a society built on content. Bandai Namco Filmworks sums up her motivation in one line: "I want to know what is real."
Natsume has described the target in similar terms, saying he wants "a work that could be called fictional but is in tune with our current time and seeks realism." That is a fair description of his previous work too. Sonny Boy, which he directed and wrote at Madhouse in 2021, was an original series about teenagers cut loose from normal rules, and it spent most of its run more interested in mood and argument than in plot mechanics.
The film has already been in front of audiences. It screened at Annecy International Animation Film Festival, the Tokyo International Film Festival, and Animation is Film, which ran from October 16 to 19. GKIDS is also listed among the outlets that have shown it.
A manga adaptation by the artist himiko began in Kadokawa's Young Ace magazine on August 4.
Why the February date matters
February 11 is a national holiday in Japan, which gives the film a long opening weekend rather than a standard two-day launch. Distributors do not place a title on that date by accident.
The other reason to watch this one is the pairing. Natsume built his reputation on television, first with Space Dandy and One-Punch Man, then with the elliptical Sonny Boy. An original film removes the episode-by-episode structure he has worked inside for a decade and puts the whole thing on one slate. Whether his style holds for two hours without a weekly rhythm is the open question, and the trailer does not answer it.
Madhouse has been selective about theatrical work in recent years, and Bandai Namco Filmworks is handling distribution. It also arrives in a season that already has more strong titles than most people can keep up with, as our ranking of the most anticipated shows noted. For a film with no source material to sell it, the campaign has to do the work that a hit manga usually does on its own.
Nothing has been announced about an international release beyond the festival screenings.
Source: Anime News Network, citing Bandai Namco Filmworks and the film's official X account.
Source: Anime News Network, citing Bandai Namco Filmworks and the film's official X account
Featured image: Visual for the ghost – end of night anime film, via MyAnimeList News.
