The anime film Peleliu: Guernica of Paradise is set during the late stages of the Pacific War, depicting the “Battle of Peleliu,” which began on September 15, 1944, and the Japanese soldiers who survived in hiding for two years after the war ended. Based on the award-winning manga by Kazuyoshi Takeda (serialized in Young Animal, Hakusensha), the film will be released nationwide in Japan on December 5.

The protagonist, Hitoshi Tamaru, a kind-hearted aspiring manga artist, is voiced by Rihito Itagaki, while his dependable companion Keisuke Yoshiki is voiced by Tomoya Nakamura. The theme song, titled “Kiseki no Yona Koto” (“A Miracle-Like Thing”), is performed by actor and singer Mone Kamishiraishi.

Thirteen new stills from the movie have been unveiled, capturing its emotional highlights. Among them are scenes of Tamaru and Yoshiki supporting each other while climbing a cliff, and gently blowing soap bubbles under a starry sky—moments that reveal their deep bond. Other images show Japanese soldiers advancing through gunfire at night with desperate expressions, and the island’s transformation from a tropical paradise into a sea of blood after intense combat. In one gripping shot, Yoshiki charges at an American soldier in the rain to save Tamaru, while another depicts 34 survivors holding shogi pieces, symbolizing the will to live against all odds.

Set on a beautiful southern island torn apart by battle, famine, thirst, and disease, the film portrays young soldiers who continue to fight for survival and cling to hope as they think of their families and homeland. Despite being ordered into a hopeless war of attrition where even suicide was forbidden, only 34 of 10,000 men ultimately survived. Through its unflinching realism, Peleliu: Guernica of Paradise explores what these young men felt and lived for amid the horrors of war—an unadorned and profoundly human wartime drama released in the winter marking 80 years since the end of World War II.

Source : ORICON NEWS