In 1967, Shinchosha published a short storyGrave of the Fireflies byAkiyuki Nosaka. 21 years later,Grave of the Fireflies was turned into afilm by directorIsao Takahata, animated byStudio Ghibli and co-distributed byBandai Visual under their Emotion label andToho. In turn, Shinchosha produced that film asShinchosha 1988. The film was released in Japanese theaters on April 16, 1988. It was then licensed and released inNorth America as a subtitledVHS byCentral Park Media on June 2, 1993,[22] and later a 2-discDVD by the same company in the same region, with the 1st disc featuring an English dub produced by Skypilot Entertainment and the original Japanese with English subtitles. The 2nd disc contained a retrospective on the author of the original book, an interview with the director, and an interview with criticRoger Ebert, who had expressed his admiration for the film on several occasions and ranked the film as one of the greatest of all time. Following the April 27, 2009, bankruptcy and liquidation of Central Park Media,ADV Films acquired the North American rights and re-released it on DVD on July 7, 2009, followed by former CPM titles such asMD Geist,Now and Then, Here and There andThe World of Narue.[23] Following the September 1, 2009, shutdown and rebranding of ADV Films,[24] their successor,Sentai Filmworks, rescued the film and re-released it as a remastered DVD on March 6, 2012, and plan on releasing the film on digital outlets.[25] ABlu-ray edition was released on November 20, 2012, featuring an all-new English dub produced bySeraphim Digital.[26]StudioCanal released a Blu-ray in theUnited Kingdom on July 1, 2013, followed by aKiki's Delivery Service release on that same format.[27] withMadman Entertainment releasing the film inAustralia andNew Zealand.
Grave of the Fireflies is the first Studio Ghibli film thatDisney never had distribution rights to in North America, since the film was not produced by then-parent companyTokuma Shoten (Disney formerly handled the North American distribution of all Tokuma Shoten-produced Studio Ghibli films beforeGKids picked up the distribution rights.) but by Shinchosha, the publisher of the original short story (as mentioned; althoughDisney has the Asian (including Japanese, China and Taiwan) distribution rights themselves).[28]
In 2016, after an editorial change, the monthly magazineShincho 45 increased its publication of polemical articles from authors who usually wrote for publications offering aright-wing perspective.[29] In 2018 Shinchosha suspended publication ofShincho 45 after several articles critical of LGBT members of society appeared in the magazine, including an article byMio Sugita in the August 2018 issue calling LGBT couples "unproductive."[20] Shinchosha president Takanobu Sato particularly criticized a series of essays in the October 2018 issue that defended Sugita's article, calling the series "expressions full of prejudice that lacked appropriate recognition and deviated from common sense."[29]
