Mouryou no Hako
 

The supernatural/horror/mystery novel Mouryou no Hako by Kyougoku Natsuhiko will be getting a TV anime adaptation.

Broadcast: October 2008

魍魎の匣
Mouryou no Hako

Synopsis:

The story follows a series of bizarre murders of schoolgirls who have been dismembered and stuffed into boxes. The private investigator hired by a missing daughter's mother joins forces with an antique book seller and others to unravel the murder spree.

Characters will be designed by CLAMP, animation will be provided by Madhouse. (From ANN)

The manga adaptation of the novel is currently being serialized in the quarterly horror/mystery anthology magazine Comic Kwai. The artist is Shimizu Aki.

Two volumes of the manga are released as of 18/08/2008.
Covers:



From the September issue of Newtype, two double-page spreads (click for full size):

http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/h...k/th_hako1.jpg http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/h...k/th_hako2.jpg

Close-ups (would anyone care to translate these?):


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From NeoSam's posts:

According to MoonPhase's anime list, the detective/youkai novel Mouryou no Hako by Kyougoku Natsuhiko will be getting animated.

The novel was published in 1995 under the general novels label Kodansha Novels.
Here its cover:



Staff:

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Orriginal Work: Kyougoku Natsuhiko
Director: Nakamura Ryousuke
Series Composition: Murai Sadayuki
Original Character Concept: CLAMP
Character Design: Nishida Asako
Color Design: Shinohara Megumi (???)
Propp Design: Kimura Masahiro
Animation Production: MADHOUSE

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More staff info for the Mouryou no Hako anime:

Art Director: Kaneko Hidetoshi
Photography Director: Igarashi Shinichi
CG Director: Seuga Tomohiko (???)
Editor: Terauchi Satoshi

Source: MoonPhase diary
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There's a live-action movie of this novel, here its official site:
http://mouryou.jp/

CLAMP Character Designs..... maybe the next Code Geass?

Not necessarily. :heh: CLAMP also did the character designs for another Madhouse production, Sweet Valerian.

From the August issue of Newtype (click to enlarge):

http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/h.../th_080708.jpg

More character sketches at:
famitsu
mycom

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Information about the movie adaptation from EigaWiki:

The Shadow Spirit (魍魎の匣, Mouryou no Hako) is a 2007 Japanese movie directed by Masato Harada. The film is based on the second novel in a series written by Natsuhiko Kyogoku about a Shinto priest who runs a book store.

Plot:
In 1952 the mutilated corpses of young women are found in boxes and a strange psychic is thought to be responsible. When the daughter of a former actress goes missing, a private detective, a writer, and a policeman team up with a Shinto priest nicknamed "Kyogokudo" to get to the bottom of the mystery.
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A note about the translation of Mouryou no Hako (魍魎の匣):

魍魎 = all kinds of spirits and goblins
匣 = box

I really like the atmosphere I'm getting from this plot...not too sure about the designs, but still extremely intriguing. Is the casting for it still undecided?

Yes, as far as I know. It's worth keeping an eye on MOON PHASE for it.

Sold! Wait, there's more?

Wo-wo-wow.

Wo-ho-ho.

Needless to say, I'm psyched. The synopsis sounds really neat too, bizzare and morbid; something I'm bound to enjoy.

Story: In the summer of Shōwa 27 (1952), an accident happened with a girl falling from the platform of Musashi Koganei station of Chuou line. Kiba who happened to be there listened to enigma from such a girl as witness. Then, the case went out into deeper water.

Color Design: Shinohara Megumi (???) → Oono Harue
CG Director: Seuga Tomohiko (???) → Suga Tomohiko

Sorry for bad translation.:heh:

Sounds VERY interesting. :)

Thank you for the translation, vel! :)

Yeah, this looks like a nice gory title. Hope someone subs this.

The live-action trailer looked good too.

The OP song is done by Nightmare and the single is already out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9qvLVpXhx0

There was also a small piece on this with character art in the first Animage Original

http://lh4.ggpht.com/shirobane/SNGVR...8/DSC05290.JPG

Yay! A series that I'm actually looking forward to this fall!

I really like it. This anime sounds so awesome. I'm excited. :D

Next Code Geass? I'll cry. I mean it. One crack-pot plot device should be the limit drawn for one calendar year. Since Code Geass fills for that particular quota, we don't need any more for year 2008. :p

Madhouse's involvement means I'll automatically check out couple of episodes. Any dates on when it is coming out? Please not 2009... please not 2009.

:heh:

Daaarn, really would like it more if it were Shimizu Aki's character designs instead of Clamp's noodly excuse for character designs! =/

Anyway, the first chapter of the manga had an interesting beginning with a fitting creepy atmosphere, so I'll definitely give this animu a chance. Never heard of the director though, so that makes me a wee bit wary.

7th October - official website here confirming it etc.

So did anyone check out the first episode? I've scanned through the RAW, and looks pretty damn creepy!

I swear AnimeSuki is trying to stop me from writing about this show. That's twice today I've somehow lost a post either through my own idiocy or means unknown.

Anyway, yes, watched the raw. It's pretty hard going for Nihongo neophytes like myself - there's all this dialogue about the five signs that a tennyo is going to die from Buddhist mythology and stuff like that which makes it quite difficult to know exactly what's going on without constantly pausing.

Brief plot synopsis for the first episode:



To get this out the way, although I am inordinately excited and probably tending towards obsession with this show already, I don't think it's that great. Given that I didn't really understand all the dialogue it's entirely plausible that it's more pretentious than Mamoru Oshii reciting Proust to his bassett hound or something. The animation is very smooth, but not spectacular (and will probably decrease in quality from hereon out), although the background art work is very good indeed. The acting is fine, if perhaps a little understated at times. The music is pleasant.

I can't really comment much further on anything as it's only the first episode, but it's just interesting. It's a big ol' mystery what's going to happen (as far as I can see the live action film did away with the whole train suicide thing and had Kanako go missing, so I've no real idea what's happening here) and it's striking an intriguing balance between what COULD be supernatural and what is just damn creepy. I actually think it's even quite an original kind of story to be telling - Japanese detective anime tend to be episodic or arc-based, whereas it's clear from the structure of the episode that the story will run the whole way through (do we know if this is 13 or 26 eps yet?).

I'll be rewatching when decent raws come out to see if my opinion of the production is any better, but things are looking promising at the moment.

I thought it was extremely good. The story was mysterious and ominous, not pretentious for me. But I find it easy to suspend disbelief if there seems to be some payoff, which there was.

I liked the way Nishida Asako (the anime character designer, who did Simoun, Touka Gettan, Vampire Knight) softened the Clamp-style character designs just enough.

I thought the music was good and the voice-acting (Takahashi Mikako and Tomatsu Haruka) was excellent. And Kiuchi Hidenobu is one of my favorite male voices.