Second Short "Okaeri" for Saga Prefecture Reveals Plot, Theme, and Key Visual

Feb 18, 17 at 11:13am

Staff Writer

Anime promotional shorts “Tadaima” a.k.a. “I’m Home” and “Okaeri” a.k.a. “Welcome Back” by Japan’s Saga Prefecture has unveiled further details relating to plot of the latter short and the theme song with a key visual on Thursday with only weeks away until the premier of the two shorts on March 11 at a public at the Saga Prefectural Museum of Art along with an online release on “Youtube” on March 12.

In the previous year, Pony Canyon produced two shorts animated by Seven Arcs Pictures, for the Saga Prefecture entitled “"Yakusoku no Utsuwa – Arita no Hatsukoi" a.k.a. “The Pot of Promise – First Love in Arita”, and “Fuyu no Chikai, Natsu no Matsuri – Takeoshi no Dai-Kusunoki,” a.k.a. “The Oath of Winter, The Festival of Summer – The Great Camphor Tree of Takeoshi.”

For this year, directing the short is Hajime Kamegaki, director of shounen series “Air Gear” and “Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple.” Working on the scripts is scriptwriter of series “Hikari no Densetsu” and popular show “Pokemon”, Hideki Sonoda. Junko Yamanda, who has done designs for characters in series “ReLife” and “Hamtaro”, will be working on the character designs for the short. Playing the ending theme “Taisetsuna Basho” a.k.a. “Important Place” for the short is Saga native Sayaka Matsuya.

The story of the second short focuses on high school senior Sora, who is to be played by the voice behind Satoshi Ideguchi in baseball anime “One Outs” and Shinichi Kudou in mystery anime “Detective Conan” a.k.a. “Case Closed” Kappei Yamaguchi. He had been aiming to become a professional soccer player, yet due to an injury he finds the path to that dream difficult if not downright impossible. As such he makes the decision to head to Karatsu city in the Saga Prefecture in order to find a new path for himself.

On another note, playing as Sora’s mother Miyoko is Kotono Mitsuishi, the voice of Boa Hancock in “One Piece” and Cathy Tamor in “Kaleido Star”.

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