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| Her Blue Sky | |||||
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 Promotional poster | |||||
| Japanese name | |||||
| Kanji | 空の青さを知る人よ | ||||
| Literal meaning | To Those Who Know of the Blueness of the Sky | ||||
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| Directed by | Tatsuyuki Nagai | ||||
| Screenplay by | Mari Okada | ||||
| Created by | Super Peace Busters | ||||
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |||||
| Cinematography | Hiroyuki Moriyama | ||||
| Edited by | Shigeru Nishiyama | ||||
| Music by | Masaru Yokoyama | ||||
Production company | |||||
| Distributed by | Toho | ||||
Release date |
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Running time | 108 minutes[1] | ||||
| Country | Japan | ||||
| Language | Japanese | ||||
| Box office | ¥440.5 million[2] | ||||
Her Blue Sky (Japanese:空の青さを知る人よ,Hepburn:Sora no Aosa o Shiru Hito yo;lit. 'To Those Who Know of the Blueness of the Sky') is a 2019Japanese animated film produced byCloverWorks. The film is directed byTatsuyuki Nagai and written byMari Okada, with Masayoshi Tanaka designing the characters and serving as chief animation director. The trio under the creative team Super Peace Busters previously worked together onToradora!,Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, andThe Anthem of the Heart. It was released in Japan on October 11, 2019, in allToho Cinemas.
InChichibu, 18-year-old Shinnosuke Kanamuro (nicknamed Shinno), who is an aspiring guitarist is dating Akane Aioi. Shinno is also friendly with Akane's 3-year-old sister Aoi, and in turn the sisters support Shinno's band. Akane plans to move to Tokyo with Shinno after graduation, where he’ll pursue a career in music. However, the girls' parents are killed in a car accident and Akane changes her plans, choosing to stay in Chichibu to raise Aoi.
Thirteen years later, Aoi is an aspiringbassist who plans to move to Tokyo after high school, while Akane works for the city hall. Masamichi Nakamura (nicknamed Michinko), the drummer of Shinno's former band, also works for the city hall. Michinko is planning to hold a music festival to boost the city's tourism, and the main performer is the famousenka singer Dankichi Nitobe.
One afternoon, while practicing bass alone in the hall,[a] Aoi encounters Shinno from thirteen years ago. Frightened, she runs home to Akane and awkwardly asks her about Shinno. Akane admits that she has not heard from Shinno since he left, and is not even sure if he is still alive. This leads Aoi to believe she had seen Shinno's ghost. Later, the sisters reluctantly help Michinko in welcoming Dankichi Nitobe, and they are surprised to see a grown Shinnosuke[b] as the guitarist of Nitobe's backup band. Aoi then returns to the hall with her friend Tsugu (Michinko's son), where they confirm that the young Shinno has a physical body but is unable to leave the hall. Tsugu hypothesizes that Shinno is anikiryō (living ghost) born from Shinnosuke's strong unresolved feelings. Shinno then asks Aoi to help bring Akane and Shinnosuke together, believing that doing so will return him to Shinnosuke's body. However, this proves to be difficult as Shinnosuke is rude, arrogant, and does not get along with the Aioi sisters—a different person from the Shinno that they once knew.
Her Blue Sky was announced by the Super Peace Busters creative team on March 21, 2019, consisting of directorTatsuyuki Nagai, screenwriterMari Okada, and character designer Masayoshi Tanaka. The trio previously collaborated onToradora!,Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, andThe Anthem of the Heart, with the film set inChichibu, Saitama, Okada's hometown and the setting of the two latter aforementioned anime, focusing on the relationship between four individuals.[6] The film is animated byCloverWorks, directed by Nagai and written by Okada, with Tanaka serving as character designer and chief animation director.Masaru Yokoyama is composing the film's soundtrack.Aniplex,Fuji TV,Toho, and Story Inc. are credited for production.[7]
The theme song titled after the film, "Her Blue Sky" (空の青さを知る人よ,Sora no Aosa o Shiru Hito yo), as well as the ending theme song "Mellow Blue" (葵,Aoi) are performed byAimyon.[8][9]
The film was distributed byToho and it was released in Japan on October 11, 2019, in allToho Cinemas in Japan.[6]Netflix began streaming the film in October 2024, with an English dub.[4] along with a Spanish and Portuguese[10]HBO Max streamed the film in Southeast Asia on November 19, 2024 and removed on September 1, 2025.[citation needed]
Her Blue Sky in its opening weekend ranked #4 in the Japanese box office, earning¥68.5 million in 3 days. As of October 28, 2019, the film has grossed a total of¥440.5 million (approximatelyUS$4.04 million).[2]
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in Japan on June 10, 2020.[11]
Two novels and three manga volumes were released.
One of the novels was released in two different forms:
The second novel was a spinoff told from the perspectives of other characters in the story:
A three-volumemanga series by Yaeko Ninagawa was released between 2019 and 2020 byKadokawa Corporation after being serialized on theirComic Newtype website.
