Hoshigiri Pictures Announces New Film Starring Hikari Shinomiya, Shot in the Bay Area With an Eye on Fan Pilgrimages

Hoshigiri Pictures held a press event at its Kyobashi headquarters on the 14th to announce a new romance film, working title "On This Side of the Window," set for release next spring. The lead is Hikari Shinomiya, 27, a half-Drifter actress known as the heroine of the morning drama "The House by the Window." The director is Manabu Kakegawa, helming his first feature for the company.

It is Shinomiya's first romance-film lead in three years. "I've spent so long playing the same town in the same era for 'The House by the Window,' so it's simply nice to do a present-day story set in today's bay area," she said frankly at the event, drawing laughter from reporters. Her role is an insurance-company clerk in the bay area, handling the previously reported forecast-linked policies. Shinomiya's only nonhuman features are ears and tail, with ordinary human-colored eyes; the production plans not to hide them in the role. "Honestly, a role that doesn't hide it is easier to play," she said.

The story is set in the Tokei bay belt, and the film will feature the ordinary texture of daily life there as-is — the permeation-index displays and reduced-speed transit notices previously reported. "This isn't a film about a special incident," Kakegawa said. "I wanted to film how a life lived alongside the Yuragi settles into the background of a love story." Filming is planned along the bay area's actual promenade and seawall, with a policy of not entering any active Yuragi site itself.

Ahead of release, the company also outlined measures anticipating that the filming locations could draw fan pilgrimages. Shooting schedules will be announced to nearby residents in advance, and after release, a permanent sign asking for quiet will be placed along the seawall stretch expected to draw fans, given its proximity to the Kyumu families' memorial, previously reported. "Filming somewhere with this much local history and memory, the way we did for Kishibe no Uta, means we need both the buzz and the consideration," a producer said.

Kakegawa also referenced this paper's own Dimensional Survey reporting, saying, "Small stories that never resolve — a window keeper's logbook entry, the story of the umbrella — are actually, I think, exactly suited to a love story." TDA's public affairs office commented only that any filming permit would go through the usual review process, with no special treatment involved.

According to the producer at the event, the neighborhood association along the proposed seawall stretch has already responded to the filming request by saying it is used to such arrangements from the ceremony and the music festival, and only asks for early notice on logistics. Because the section lies near the memorial for the Kyumu families' association, previously reported through its secretary Kazuko Sakota, the crew will follow internal rules of its own — not touching the flower stand, and never pointing camera equipment toward the memorial itself.

Shinomiya is now in her fourth year playing a family from 1975 on "The House by the Window." Asked why she took on a contemporary lead now, she said, "Staying this long in the same setting, the same era, there are moments you almost forget what your own face looks like when it smiles today." Kakegawa said, "How to shed the 'morning-drama heroine' label, in today's Tokei, was the central question behind this casting."

Release is set for next spring, with full casting and theme song details to follow. Shinomiya closed the event by saying, "I want people from the bay area to watch this and laugh, 'hey, that's my neighborhood.'"