Entertainment news website Deadline reported on Friday that Freestyle Digital Media has acquired the theatrical and digital rights for Dragon Heart – Adventures Beyond This World, a new film from controversial religious organization Happy Science (Kōfuku no Kagaku). The film will screen in U.S. theaters on June 6. The company will release the film on DVD and digital platforms at a later date. An English-dubbed trailer is streaming:
The English dub stars:
The anime’s website describes the story:
Ryusuke is a junior high school student living in Tokyo. During his summer vacation, he visits Tokushima and reunites with his teenage cousin, Tomomi. Ryusuke and Tomomi go outing to the Anabuki River where they get swept away by the rushing current.
As they sink to the bottom of the river, a dragon appears, rescues them, and takes them to a mysterious old man. The old man tells Ryusuke and Tomomi that they are already dead, but that he can send them back to life if they explore the spirit world and find their mission in life. Although perplexed with the situation, Ryusuke and Tomomi decide to begin their journey to the spirit world. First, they arrive in a gloomy town that looks like it’s from the 1960’s. Soon after, they are assailed by terrible things one after another. They see fear-ridden rogues killing one another and doctors mutilating
patients. People die and rise. They get killed and rise again. Ryusuke and Tomomi realize that they are in hell. But their journey doesn’t end there. The adventure beyond this world continues into the unknown. Will they be able to find their mission in life?
© IRH Press
The film will open in Japan on May 23.
The late Ryuho Okawa is credited as the executive producer and original creator. Isamu Imakake (The Mystical Laws) is directing the film. kouta is performing the theme song “Dragon Heart.”
The film stars Yūsuke Kobayashi as Ryuusuke and Chinatsu Hirose as Tomomi. The cast also includes Shigeru Chiba, Shunsuke Takeuchi, and Shinichirō Miki.
This year’s AnimeJapan event had an exhibition for the event on March 22-23.
Happy Science has sponsored a number of animated films in the past. These films include: Hermes – Winds of Love (1997), The Laws of the Sun (2000), The Golden Laws (2003), The Laws of Eternity (2006), The Rebirth of Buddha (2009), The Mystical Laws (2012), The Laws of the Universe Part 0 (2015), and The Laws of the Universe: The Age of Elohim (2021). Okawa is credited as the original creator for all of these films.
The Mystical Laws opened simultaneously in the U.S. in October 2012. The film received an English dub for its Japanese home video release, and it received a video-on-demand release in the U.S.
Happy Science has come under scrutiny for its practices and coercive recruitment tactics in the past. Through its political party, the Happiness Realization Party, the group has advocated for nuclear deterrence, and has called for the amendment and removal of the pacifist Article 9 of Japan’s constitution. The group has also repeated common Japanese right-wing rhetoric, such as the denial of the Nanking Massacre, the Imperial Japanese Army practice of taking comfort women, and the assertion of the Japanese state’s de jure ownership of the Senkaku Islands. The group has offered spiritual “vaccines,” which it claimed could cure COVID-19.
Sources: Dragon Heart anime’s website, Deadline (Zac Ntim, Andreas Wiseman)
