- Arashi no Yoru Ni
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Arashi no Yoru Ni
Gabu and Mei of the A Stormy Night (Arashi no Yoru Ni) movieあらしのよるに
(Stormy Night)Genre Drama, Adventure Novel Written by Yūichi Kimura Illustrated by Hiroshi Abe Published by Kodansha Demographic Children Published 1994 Anime film Directed by Gisaburō Sugii Released December 10, 2005 (Japan) Runtime 105 Minutes Arashi no Yoru Ni (あらしのよるに?, lit. One Stormy Night) is the first in a series of children's books authored by Yūichi Kimura and illustrated by Hiroshi Abe. In 1995, the book won the 42nd Sankei Children's Literature Culture Award and the 26th Kōdansha Literature Culture Award.
When "Arashi no Yoru Ni" was published in 1994, Kimura had no plans to continue the story as a series. But due to the popularity of the story and receiving considerable encouragement, he continued the story through five more books, ending with "Fubuki no Ashita (After the Snowstorm)." As the series became more popular, a compilation called "Shiroiyami no Hatede" was released and a movie adaptation was produced. Soon after, Kimura wrote the seventh book, "Mangetsu no Yoru Ni", finally ending the series.
Arashi no Yoru Ni was published in Japanese textbooks by Mitsumura Tosho Publishing. In 2005, Gisaburō Sugii directed an animated film adaptation covering all seven books in the series.
Contents
Plot
A goat named Mei wanders into a barn one night, seeking shelter from a storm. In the barn, the goat meets another refugee. The two can neither see nor smell each other, but nevertheless they huddle together, fending off the cold, and begin to talk. Eventually, they establish a friendship. The two decide to meet later and will recognize each other by using the password "one stormy night". The next day, when they meet, Mei learns that his companion from the night before was a wolf named Gabu. Despite their natural predisposition as enemies, they share a common bond and begin meeting regularly. However, Mei's flock and Gabu's pack eventually find out about their relationship and forbid the friendship. Mei and Gabu, hoping to preserve their friendship, cross a river during a storm. They hope to find an "emerald forest" free from persecution.
However, Giro, the leader of Gabu's pack, holds a grudge against goats and views Gabu as a traitor to all wolves. Giro and his pack begin to hunt down the two companions. Gabu and Mei reach the summit of a mountain where they stop and rest, exhausted from fighting their way through a snowstorm. Mei, knowing that Gabu has not eaten in days, offers to sacrifice himself as food. Gabu agrees initially, but soon realizes that no matter how hungry he is, he cannot eat his friend. Gabu hears his pack approaching and faces them, ready to defend his goat friend to the death. As Gabu is about to go face the wolf pack, there is an avalanche. The next morning, Mei digs through the snow blocking the cave and sees the "emerald forest" they had been searching for in the distance. Gabu is missing, but Mei finds him in another cave. Gabu has lost his memory of their friendship and all the events that preceded the avalanche. While waiting for the moon to come out, Gabu taunts Mei that he plans on eating him. Mei, saying that he wouldn't have minded being eaten by Gabu before, accuses the wolf of not being the Gabu he previously knew. Angrily, Mei shouts that he wishes that he had never met Gabu on "one stormy night". On hearing these words, Gabu's memory returns, and they happily reunite. In the end, Mei and Gabu both enjoy watching the moon as it rises.
Book series
The picture book series, published by Kodansha, Ltd., has been released in Japanese in seven volumes.
- Arashi no Yoru Ni (1994) ISBN 4-06-252852-5
- Aru Hareta Hi Ni (1996) ISBN 4-06-252870-3
- Kumo no Kirema Ni (1997) ISBN 4-06-252874-6
- Kiri no Naka De (1999) ISBN 4-06-252875-4
- Doshaburi no Hi Ni (2000) ISBN 4-06-252876-2
- Fubuki no Ashita (2002) ISBN 4-06-252877-0
- Mangetsu no Yoru Ni (2005) ISBN 4-06-252878-9
Characters
- Gabu, a wolf from the Bakubaku Valley.
- Mei, a goat from the Sawasawa Mountains.
- Giro, the boss of the Bakubaku Valley wolves and a friend of Gabu's father.
- Barry, a red-haired wolf and Giro's right-hand man.
- Beach and Zack, a pair of twin wolves.
- Tap (known as Tapper in the unofficial English dub), an overweight goat who acts as an elder brother figure to Mei.
- Mii (known as Mina in the unofficial English dub), a pink-colored goat and a friend of Mei. She does not appear in the book series.
- Elder Goat, the leader of the goats of the Sawasawa Mountains.
- Mei's Mother, who attempted to save Mei from a group of wolves when he was a child, managing to bite off Giro's ear before being eaten. Though she is mentioned, she does not physically appear in the book series.
- Mei's Grandmother, who raised Mei after his mother was killed, and is later shocked when Mei befriends Gabu. She does not appear in the book series.
Stage
Since 1997, Engekishūdan En has annually performed the story on the "En Kodomo Stage." Performers have included Yoshie Minami, Akio Kaneda, Rintarō Nishi, and Rieko Takahashi among others.
In 2004, Aoni Production sponsored the Voice Fair 2004's dramatization of Arashi no Yoru ni and Aru Hareta Hi ni, which starred Katsue Miwa as Mei and Minori Matsushima as Gabu.
In 2007, Yoshikazu Yokoyama directed the Engekishūdan Studio Life musical version, in which Sayaka Yoshino portrayed Mei.
Animated film
The film "Arashi no Yoru Ni" was released in Japan on December 10, 2005. The film stayed on the top 10 list for the Japanese box office for well over a month, with over 1,200,000 viewers in the first month alone. On January 20, 2006, "Arashi no Yoru Ni" was screened in Taiwan. The Japanese DVD was released on June 23, 2006 as both a special edition and a standard edition. In 2007, the film was nominated for the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year.[citation needed]
Cast
- Gabu: Shidō Nakamura II
- Mei: Hiroki Narimiya
- Giro: Riki Takeuchi
- Barry: Kōichi Yamadera
- Beach: Tetsuya Yanagihara (America Zarigani)
- Zack: Yoshiyuki Hirai (America Zarigani)
- Kama: Mitsuaki Hoshino
- Toro: Akimitsu Takase
- Gari: Yasuyuki Kase
- Gori: Takahiro Yoshino
- Tap: Shōzō Hayashiya IX
- Mii: Maya Kobayashi (then TBS announcer)
- Moro: Masamitsu Morita (weather forecaster)
- Grandmother goat: Kabachan
- Elder goat: Eiji Bandō
- Gabu's Mother: Yū Hayami (Friendship Performance)
- Mei's Grandmother: Etsuko Ichihara (Special Performance)
Staff
- Original story: Yūichi Kimura
- Director: Gisaburō Sugii
- Animation supervisor: Tsuneo Maeda
- Character design: Marisuke Eguchi
- Art director: Yukio Abe
- Music: Keisuke Shinohara
- Theme song: "Star" by Aiko
English Dub
A small group of voice actors and sound engineers acquired permission from the original producers Tokyo Broadcasting System Television (TBS) to make a complete English Re-dub of the Arashi No Yoru Ni movie for YouTube. The first part of the movie was uploaded on December 31, 2008 and was completed on November 5, 2009. On December 23, 2009 the team released an AC3 file which replaces the Japanese voice cast with an English voice cast and became available for download on their Fur Affinity web page. The team was unable to obtain the rights to the song Star by Aiko, the original theme song for the movie. The ending was replaced with the song "Watch the Moon Rise" performed by MFE.
Drama CD
Sound Theater: Arashi no Yoru ni was released on December 22, 2006.
Cast
- Mei: Akira Ishida
- Gabu: Hiroaki Hirata
- Tap: Kappei Yamaguchi
- Giro: Jūrōta Kosugi
- Barry: Kazuya Nakai
- Narration: Shigenori Sōya
- Misses Goat: Noriko Suzuki
- Elder Goat: Hiroshi Shirokuma
- Goat A: Ai Emi
- Goat B: Takayuki Nezu
- Wolf A: Jun Nakata
- Wolf B: Keiichi Takahashi
References
Much of the content of this article comes from the equivalent Japanese-language Wikipedia article.
External links
- (English) Arashi no Yoru Ni at the Internet Movie Database
- (Japanese) "Arashi no Yoru Ni" movie official website
- (Japanese) Yūichi Kimura's home page
- (English) TBS's "Stormy Night" website in English
- (English) "Arashi no Yoru Ni" on TvTropes
Categories:- Japanese novels
- Anime films
- Japanese films
- Japanese-language films
- Anime of 2005
- 2005 films
- Fictional wolves
- Fictional goats
- Films featuring anthropomorphic characters
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