It has been announced that the juvenile sci-fi story “The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbye” from “Gagaga Bunko” will be adapted into an animated feature film and will be released in the summer of 2022. At the same time, comments from the original author, Hachimoku Mei, have also arrived.

The story is a juvenile sci-fi about a boy-meets-girl summer in an urban legend called “Urashima Tunnel” where you can get what you want instead of getting old if you enter the tunnel. The story goes with the main character, who lost his beloved sister in the past and is living with a lack of hope, and a student transferee with a certain problem, trying to get what they both “want” from the “Urashima Tunnel”.
The original light novel won both the Gaga Award and the Judges’ Special Award at the “13th Shogakukan Light Novel Awards” in 2019.

The animated film is scheduled to be released in the summer of 2022, and will be directed by Taguchi Tomohisa, the director of “Akudama Drive” and “Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna”, with animation production by CLAP known for “Pompo: The Cinéphile”. We look forward to further news.

[Author of the original story: Hachimoku Mei]

“The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbye” is a story born from frustration by the passing of time while putting my heart into tapping the keyboard. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that my heart-burning feelings at that time would end up in creating a film. Director Taguchi and all the staff have been working passionately on this project. As a spectator, I am looking forward to the completion of the film.

■Gagaga Bunko “The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbye”
Written by Hachimoku Mei, Illustrated by Kukka
Price: 672 JPY (tax included) Published by Shogakukan