Blue Thermal Glider Club Anime Film’s Clip Shows Club Members

Toei began streaming a clip from the anime film of Kana Ozawa‘s Blue Thermal -Aonagi Daigaku Taiiku-kai Kōkū-bu- (Aonagi College Sports Festival Aviation Club) manga on Thursday.

The clip shows protagonist Tamaki Tsuru approaching glider club member Jun Kuramochi about withdrawing from her application to join the club, as she wants to have a “normal college life” full of socializing and finding romance. She assures Jun that she will pay for the repairs for the glider. Jun attempts to persuade Tamaki to stay in the clip, replying that the winnings from a glider tournament will cover the glider’s repairs, and encouraging fellow club member Daisuke Sorachi to be Tamaki’s boyfriend (a request that Sorachi is surprised by but readily accepts).

The film will open in Japan on Friday.

The cast members include:

Mayu Hotta as protagonist Tamaki Tsuru

Nobunaga Shimazaki as glider club member Jun Kuramochi

Junya Enoki as glider club member Daisuke Sorachi

Additional cast members include:
(Top row, left to right in image above)

• Mikako Komatsu as Chizuru Yano, Tamaki’s half-sister, and the leader of the glider club at Aonagi’s rival university Hannankan
• Daisuke Ono as Yō Asahina, an Aonagi alumnus and a former member and supporter of the glider club who has a certain promise with Kuramochi

(Middle row, left to right in image above) (Bottom row, left to right in image above)

Masaki Tachibana (Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, Barakamon, Princess Principal) is directing the film at Telecom Animation Film, and is also penning the script alongside Natsuko Takahashi (Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, My Love Story!!, Farewell, My Dear Cramer). Toei is distributing the film.

Four-member piano rock band SHE’S are performing the film’s titular theme song “Blue Thermal,” and they are also contributing the insert song “Beautiful Bird” for the film.

The manga centers on Tamaki Tsuru, who was on sports teams throughout her entire school life until high school, but is instead seeking an active romantic life once she enters college. However, a turn of events puts her on the path to joining her university’s glider club at college.

The manga ran in Shinchosha‘s Monthly Comic @Bunch magazine from April 2014 to November 2017, and Shichosha published five compiled book volumes for the manga (the manga’s fifth volume mentions that only the “first part” of the story has concluded). Ozawa launched a prequel manga titled Blue Thermal: First Flight on the LINE Manga app on November 20.

The manga previously inspired a 12-minute virtual reality film titled Blue Thermal VR -Hajimari no Sora- that debuted in July 2018.

Source: Comic Natalie