Anime studio Cloverworks announced its latest original anime movie, Fureru, with major attention paid to the fact it is reuniting the creative trio behind the modern classic Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day. The new website and teaser are scant in details about the premise of the movie, bar the presence of three characters and a mysterious hedgehog. Fureru is expected to premiere in Fall 2024.
The promotional material focuses on the team up of director Tatsuyuki Nagai, screenwriter Mari Okada, and artist Masayoshi Tanaka, who, together, go by the group name “Super Peace Busters”. Their last work was Her Blue Sky in 2019.
There’s plenty of community support for Fureru, with many fans of Cloverworks hoping the new film will rekindle the same emotional highs the studio pulled off years ago.
Fureru Marks the Fourth Reunion Of Beloved Creative Team
Created by Cloverworks
The teaser, currently hosted on Aniplex’s YouTube channel, shows off a montage of the trio’s collaborative works – Anohana, The Anthem of the Heart, and Her Blue Sky – before revealing their new 2024 movie. Besides images of hands, visuals focus on the mysterious golden hedgehog character, coupled with the ominous drone in the teaser, plus its jagged, spiky shadow seen in the movie’s poster, suggests a dark secret under its cute exterior. The teaser features brief text, that, when translated, says, “We learned the world’s secrets, and its pain…”. Beyond that, neither the teaser nor the movie’s website has revealed any additional details.
All three members of the Super Peace Busters – named after the main characters in Anohana – are prolific creators in their field. Okada in particular is well-renowned, with her directorial work catching praise, including Maboroshi, which will begin streaming on Netflix in January. As a trio, however, Fureru marks the fourth time the group has teamed up again, which is why the movie’s promotion emphasizes it. All their prior works tend to focus on dramas in ordinary Japanese locales that are exaggerated by the presence of supernatural occurrences – ghosts, time travel, etc. – so Fureru‘s mysterious hedgehog is on theme.
The Anohana anime series remains a beloved work by anime viewers, which is why the Super Peace Busters team continues to be held in such high regard. While further details surrounding Fureru remain a mystery, it seems that anime fans already have something to look forward to next year. Even if one isn’t enthused or aware of the trio, just knowing that Cloverworks is involved ought to turn heads given their recent successful productions. The collaboration between so many vaunted groups, Fureru, with its foreboding interest in dark and painful secrets, exemplified by its spiny mascot, should be worth following.
