Remi Chauveau Notes
The Franco‑Japanese animated feature Hana Rokushou ga Akeru Hi ni emerges as a breakout selection of the 76th Berlinale, uniting cross‑cultural artistry, rising talent, and a luminous coming‑of‑age vision poised to captivate an international audience.
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🌸 Franco‑Japanese Production — 花六照が明ける日に Hana Rokushou ga Akeru Hi ni, Selected for the 76th Berlinale

30 January 2026
@theanimescoop A New Dawn is a new anime movie about an abandoned fireworks factory and it's coming out this March 6, 2026! #anewdawn #hanarokushougaakeruhini #newanime #animemovie #theanimescoop ♬ original sound - The Anime Scoop

🌙 Night Dancer, Dawn Fire: imase and the Pulse Beneath the Film

Just as Hana Rokushou ga Akeru Hi ni blooms into a story of youth, inheritance, and the fragile moment when a life catches fire, imase’s Night Dancer becomes an unexpected but perfect echo of its emotional rhythm — the sound of a generation learning to move through darkness toward its own light. At only 23, the Gifu‑born artist has risen from TikTok discovery to a cultural force, with Night Dancer surpassing 100 million views and becoming the first J‑POP track to break into Korea’s Melon Top 20. His meteoric ascent mirrors the film’s themes of ignition and becoming, making his involvement feel almost fated: a young creator whose own trajectory — sold‑out tours, viral breakthroughs, and a debut that reshaped the J‑POP landscape — resonates with the story of Keitarō, a boy trying to finish a firework that will define his future. Even before Aoba is released, imase’s presence casts a musical glow over the film, like a spark waiting for dawn.

🎶 🌊🎴🌸🎎⛩️🌈💖⭐🫧🚆🍄 🔊 Night Dancer - imase




“Even the quietest morning can split open into destiny.”

A line you might find whispered on the first page of a coming‑of‑age manga — and the perfect doorway into Yoshitoshi Shinomiya’s debut film.

🎬 A Debut Wrapped in Anticipation — Now Rising at the 76th Berlinale

Hana Rokushou ga Akeru Hi ni, the first feature film by director and visual artist Yoshitoshi Shinomiya, is set to bloom in Japanese theaters on March 6. But before its domestic release, it steps onto one of world cinema’s most prestigious stages: the 76th Berlin International Film Festival, where it has been selected for the Competition — a rare distinction for a debut animated feature. Shinomiya, known for his ethereal background artistry in Makoto Shinkai’s films, now unveils a world entirely his own: intimate, handcrafted, and emotionally charged. This Franco‑Japanese co‑production, created with the acclaimed French studio MIYU Production, marks a new chapter in cross‑cultural animation — a fusion of Japanese sensitivity and French artistic daring, blooming into something unmistakably new.

🎶 A Theme Song Waiting to Bloom — “Aoba” and the Promise of Light

The film’s theme song, “Aoba,” written by imase and arranged/produced by Shuuta Hasunuma, has officially been chosen as the musical heart of the film. But unlike the trailer’s instrumental hints, the full song has not yet been released — it is scheduled to arrive on Friday, February 27th. This delay only heightens anticipation. “Aoba” is poised to become the emotional weather of the film — a blend of nostalgia, delicacy, and slow‑burn intensity. Hasunuma’s warm, crystalline soundscapes promise a sonic world where memory and renewal coexist, while imase’s youthful lyricism mirrors the protagonist’s inner turmoil. Even unheard, the song already feels like a firework waiting to ignite — shimmering, patient, and full of promise.

🖌️ A Creative Team Built Like an Atelier — Craft Over Spectacle

Shinomiya has assembled a team that works like an old‑world atelier. Character designer Utsushita (Tengoku Daimakyou) brings softness and vulnerability to the protagonists, while animation director Shouhei Hamaguchi ensures every movement feels alive, intentional, and human. The film’s textures — from linework to lighting — feel touched by hand, as if assembled in the same kind of centuries‑old workshop that the story itself depicts. This artisanal approach mirrors the film’s themes: tradition, inheritance, and the fragile beauty of creation.

🎇 A Boy, a Vanishing Workshop, and a Mythical Firework

At the heart of the story is Keitarō Tatewaki, played by Rikuto Hagiwara — a boy raised inside a fireworks factory that has existed for over three centuries. But now the workshop is facing eviction, swallowed by redevelopment. His father has disappeared, leaving behind an unfinished, mythical firework known as Shuhari. Keitarō is determined to complete it before the factory closes forever. Into this fading world returns Kaoru Shikimori (Kotone Furukawa), his childhood friend who left for Tokyo years earlier. Their reunion is not nostalgic sweetness but a collision of lost time, unspoken longing, and the weight of everything they never said. Together — with Keitarō’s older brother Sentarō — they attempt the impossible: to finish and launch the Shuhari firework before the workshop disappears into history. Their lives unfold between sparks and ashes, between the rituals of a craft passed down through generations and the uncertain dawn of adulthood.

🌠 A Film That Opens Like a Flower‑Firework — Quiet, Luminous, Transformative

Set against the backdrop of an ancient pyrotechnic tradition, Hana Rokushou ga Akeru Hi ni promises a story where small gestures carry immense emotional resonance. It is a tale of youth shaped by place, of craft shaped by time, and of two lives learning to open — slowly, delicately — like the flower‑fireworks that give the film its name. Early festival whispers speak of a breathtaking final sequence — a ten‑minute crescendo where the phantom firework illuminates not the sky, but the characters’ futures. It is a moment of revelation, release, and renewal. Shinomiya’s debut feels like one of those rare works that bloom quietly, then linger long after the light fades — a film that marks a new dawn for animated storytelling.

#HanaRokushou 🌸 #Berlinale76 🎬 #AobaSong 🎶 #FireworkDestiny 🎇 #FrancoJapaneseFilm 🇫🇷🇯🇵

Yoshitoshi Shinomiya: Craft Mastery

The Hidden Mastery Arc: From Tradition to Transcendence
The mythical firework Shuhari isn’t just the emotional centerpiece of Hana Rokushou ga Akeru Hi ni — it’s a hidden mirror of Yoshitoshi Shinomiya’s own artistic journey, built around the traditional Japanese concept of shuhari (守破離), the three stages of mastery: obey, break, transcend. Most viewers will see Keitarō struggling to finish the firework his father left behind, but beneath the surface, the film is charting the same evolution in its creator: Shinomiya begins in Shu, honoring the traditions of Japanese animation; moves into Ha, breaking away from the visual language he once served under Shinkai; and reaches Ri, crafting a world that is unmistakably his own. The firework’s ignition is not just Keitarō’s moment of becoming — it is Shinomiya’s too, a quiet declaration that he has stepped out of the shadows and into his own light.

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