Haikara-san: Here Comes Miss Modern Anime Film's English Dub Cast Revealed

Eleven Arts Anime Studio announced the English dub cast for the Haikara-San: Here Comes Miss Modern Part 1 (Gekijōban Haikara-san ga Tōru Zenpen - Benio, Hana no 17-sai) anime film on Tuesday. As previously announced, Mimi Torres will star as the main character Benio Hanamura. Other cast members include:

• Robbie Daymond as Shinobu Ijuin
• Keith Silverstein as Tosei Aoe
• Kirk Thornton as Shingo Onijima
• Cristina Vee as Tamaki Kitakoji

Haikara-San: Here Comes Miss Modern Part 1 is the first of two films based on Waki Yamato's Haikara-san ga Tooru manga. The film will opentheatrically in the United States and Canada on June 8 in Japanese with English subtitles.

Eleven Arts has announced that the second film, Gekijōban Haikara-san ga Tōru Kōhen - Hana no Tōkyō Dai Roman, is scheduled for this fall in the United States but has not confirmed a release window for Canada. All screenings will be in Japanese with English subtitles.

The story is set in Tokyo in the Taishō era (1912-1926). The story follows Benio "Haikara-san" Hanamura, who lost her mother when she was very young and has been raised by her father, a high-ranking official in the Japanese army. As a result, she has grown into a tomboy — contrary to traditional Japanese notions of femininity, she studies kendo, drinks sake, dresses in often outlandish-looking Western fashions instead of the traditional kimono, and is not as interested in housework as she is in literature. She also rejects the idea of arranged marriages and believes in a woman's right to a career and to marry for love.

Haikara-san's best friends are the beautiful Tamaki, who is much more feminine than Haikara-san but equally interested in women's rights, and Ranmaru, a young man who was raised to play female roles in the kabuki theater and as a result has acquired very effeminate mannerisms. Haikara-san's betrothed is Shinobu Ijūin, a second lieutenant in the army.

Kazuhiro Furuhashi (Rurouni Kenshin, Hunter x Hunter) directed the first film in the series, which opened in Japan last November. Toshiaki Kidokoro (March comes in like a lion episode director, Fireworks, Should We See it from the Side or the Bottom? line director) is replacing the previously announced Mitsuko Kase (Ristorante Paradiso, Young Black Jack) as the director of Gekijōban Haikara-san ga Tōru Kōhen - Hana no Tōkyō Dai Roman, which opens in Japan this fall. The film was originally slated to open this spring.

Terumi Nishii (Penguindrum, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable) is designing the characters, and Kentaro Akiyama (ReLIFE, Magic-kyun! Renaissance, Selector Infected Wixoss) is in charge of both background design and art direction. Kunio Tsujita (INTERSTELLA 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, Penguindrum) is the color designer. Takeo Ogiwara (Chain Chronicle: The Light of Haecceitas, Yuri Kuma Arashi) is the director of photography at Graphinica. Kazuhiro Wakabayashi (Eureka Seven, Kuromukuro) is the sound director, and Michiru Oshima (Sound of the Sky, Little Witch Academia) is composing the music. Nippon Animation is in charge of animation production.

The all-female Takarazuka Revue theater troupe's Flower Troupe performed a musical adaptation of the manga last October.