GKIDS, the producer and distributor of acclaimed international animation, has acquired the North American rights to “The Last Blossom,” the first original feature-length animated film from director Baku Kinoshita and animated by CLAP Animation Studio. The animated feature will be released in theaters for two nights only in Japanese with English subtitles from August 30th and 31st.
The film premiered at Annecy International Animated Film Festival last year. It will screen as part of North America’s largest Japanese film festival, JAPAN CUTS, hosted by Japan Society in New York, on June 3rd.
Released as “HOUSENKA” in Japan in October 2025, the film hails from Kinoshita and writer Kazuya Konomoto, creators of “ODDTAXI,” and award-winning Studio CLAP (“Pompo: The Cinephile”), “The Last Blossom” is described as “a thrillingly original work from animation’s most inventive new talent. Moving across time and memory, the film is an unforgettable meditation on found family, sacrifice, and the complicated pieces that join together to make a life,” according to the official release.
The official synopsis reads: “Former yakuza Akutsu is serving life in prison after a middling career in the underworld. On the night he lays dying in his cell, he reminisces with his only companion, a smart-mouthed flower growing out of a can, about the choices that brought him here, the woman he loved, and a child he would give everything to protect. Is redemption out of reach?”
So far this year, GKIDS has released titles like Yasuhiro Aoki’s wonderful “ChaO” and a re-release of classic anime title “Tekkonkinkreet,” with a robust 2026 slate that includes a re-release of influential anime “Adolescence of Utena” and the latest Aardman release “Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom” (out in time for Halloween, of course), along with the live-action “Godzilla Minus Zero,” the follow-up to Toho’s blockbuster “Godzilla Minus One,” set for release in November.
“The Last Blossom” hits theaters on August 30 and 31.
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