The Ballad of Tobio & Hannah

The Ballad of Tobio & Hannah is a 2022 jukebox musical sports comedy directed and written by Gerry Tanaka from a story by Osamu Tezuka, based on his Manga, The Ballad of Tobio as well as the third feature film adaptation following the 1975 Carl Andy film Toby and 2005's New Battle of Tobio: The Movie. it stars Gerry's son Jake Tanaka and Sophia Lillis as the title couple, alongside Kurt Russell, Marisa Tomei, Abraham Attah and Mackenyu, the film follows Tobio Katsumoto, a street orphan turned Boxer and his romance with Italian-American foreign exchange student Hannah Cacaronie, in Tokyo during the mid 1960s.

The project was announced in November 2018 by Paramount Pictures (who owns US rights to the 1979-82 Anime and the franchise in general), later on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (who partly owns the 1975 film via United Artists) joined the production as co-producer, Gerry's son Jake was soon cast in the male lead, casting continued until January and principal photography began in later that month under COVID-19 safe regulations, taking place in Los Angeles and Canada, Carl Andy, director of the original film was hired as creative consultant.

the film held it's premiered at the Osamu Tezuka Museum in Japan on November 3, 2022 (Tezuka's 94th birthday) and had it's wide release on November 18, 2022 and will stream on Paramount+ 45 days after it's theatrical window. The film recieved mixed reviews with some praising the cast, art direction, choreography and faithfullness to the source material but criticized the acting and singing.

Cast
for Character info, see the List of Characters section


 * Jake Tanaka as Tobio Katsumoto
 * Sophia Lillis as Hannah Cacaronie
 * Kurt Russel as Robert Shmuel
 * Marisa Tomei as Katie Cacaronie
 * Mackenyu as Maku Kata
 * Abraham Attah as Jazz Kid