Shigeko (film)

Shigeko is a 2009 anime drama film directed and written by Tatsuya Hironaka in his second feature film credit, with Robert Fredrickson serving as a producer. It features an ensemble voice cast consisting of Jake Gyllenhaal, Eden Riegel, Hunter Parrish, Ray Liotta, Tracy Morgan, Will Arnett and Bryan Cranston. The film's story is about a high school boy named Hikaru Nomura (Gyllenhaal), who forms an unlikely friendship with a delinquent girl named Shigeko Kumagai, after she protects him from a group of bullies led by Daichi Kobashigawa (Parrish), however, there is actually more to what Kobashigawa wants than what meets the eye, in part due to a link with a Yakuza gang that Shigeko's father (Cranston) is secretly a part of.

After taking a brief hiatus from directing after Lost Star and moving from J.C.Staff to A-1 Pictures, Hironaka began development on Shigeko in 2006. Similar to Lost Star, Shigeko was an international co-production between Aniplex and A-1 Pictures in Japan, Robert Fredrickson via Paxshire Films in the United States and Reliance BIG Pictures in India. The film was also produced in English, similar to Lost Star, with Fredrickson co-writing the English screenplay for Hironaka and directing the voices.

Shigeko was released theatrically in Japan by GAGA Corporation on November 7, 2009, in India by Reliance BIG Pictures on January 8, 2010, and in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures on March 5, 2010. The film recieved largely positive reviews from critics, with the characters, chemistry between the leads, animation and voice acting being highly praised. It was also very successful at the box office, making back $168 million worldwide against a $12 million budget. It was the highest grossing R-rated animated film up until the release of Darkness Lives in 2015.

Distribution
While GAGA Corporation and Reliance BIG Pictures distributed the film in Japan and India, respectively, Shigeko 's distribution in America proved to be slightly difficult. New Line Cinema, who also released Robert Fredrickson's Mark of the Vampire, initially picked up the US distribution rights to the film, but after The Kiss from the Damned underperformed at the box office, New Line backed out of distribution and the film was completely transferred to parent company Warner Bros. Pictures. Owing to that film's very positive critical response in spite of it's underperformance, Warner Bros. decided to hold test screenings for Shigeko in quarters two and three of 2009 to determine if they should go through with releasing it themselves. These results proved to be similarly very positive with test audiences, and thus, the company decided to go through with it. Warner Bros.' involvement in distributing the film was officially announced on September 9, 2009 and the company set the film for release on March 5, 2010, with a US premiere to be held at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre on February 19 of that year.

Theatrical release
Shigeko had it's world premiere on September 16, 2009 at the 34th Toronto International Film Festival. It was first released in Japan in a limited release on November 7, 2009 before expanding to a wider release on November 21. Following it's premiere in Japan, the English version of the film made it's theatrical debut in India on January 8, 2010 across 758 screens.

In the United States, Warner Bros. premiered the film at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre on February 19, 2010. The film was released in the United States and the United Kingdom on March 5, 2010 and later in Australia and New Zealand on April 7, 2010. Before the movie's release, the US trailer for the film was attached to the releases of Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, The Fourth Kind, 2012, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Ninja Assassin, Everybody's Fine, Armored, Up in the Air, Did You Hear About the Morgans? and Avatar.

Home media
Shigeko was first released on DVD and Blu-ray by Warner Home Video on July 13, 2010 in the United States and by Reliance BIG Home Video a week later on July 20 in India. Bonus features on the US home video releases include an audio commentary from Robert Fredrickson and Jim Hubbert, a deleted scene and the film's US trailer and TV spots. The Indian home video release features the choice of either English or Hindi language soundtracks.

In Japan, Aniplex released Shigeko on Blu-ray and DVD on August 4, 2010. It was released in both a standard edition and a limited edition premium box set release. This release contains a different audio commentary with Tatsuya Hironaka, Tomonori Ochikoshi and Masao Ueda, the same deleted scene bonus feature as the US release, the Japanese trailers and TV spots, and the choices of Japanese and English soundtracks. The box set also comes with a DVD delving into the backstories of some of the characters, production notes featuring 80 pages of character art and set designs from the film, a Micro SD, a postcard, and a small bookmark containing a reel from the film inside a plastic cover.