General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

The Case of Hana & Alice (花とアリス殺人事件)

The Case of Hana & Alice (花とアリス殺人事件, Hana to Arisu satsujin jiken) is a 2015 Japanese animated feature film written, directed, and scored by Shunji Iwai, telling how the two heroines of his 2004 live-action film Hana & Alice first met as junior high school students.¹ It was Iwai's first feature-length animation, produced by combining rotoscoping, in which animation is traced over live-action footage, with cel-look 3D computer graphics.² The film received the Excellence Award in the Animation Division of the 19th Japan Media Arts Festival and was screened in the feature film competition of the 2015 Annecy International Animated Film Festival.²^•³

Key fact	Detail
Japanese title / release	花とアリス殺人事件; released February 20, 2015 in Japan, distributed by T-Joy¹
Director	Shunji Iwai, who also wrote the original story, script, and music; his first feature-length animation¹^•²
Voice cast	Yu Aoi as Alice (Arisugawa Tetsuko) and Anne Suzuki as Hana (Arai Hana), the same cast as the 2004 live-action film¹^•⁴
Running time / format	100 minutes, color, American Vista (1:1.85) screen ratio¹
Animation technique	Rotoscoping over live-action footage combined with cel-look 3DCG²
Recognition	19th Japan Media Arts Festival Animation Division Excellence Award; Annecy 2015 feature competition²^•³
Home video	Blu-ray and DVD released August 12, 2015 by Pony Canyon⁵

Spoilers

Story

Arisugawa Tetsuko, known as Alice, is a third-year junior high school student who transfers to Ishinomori Gakuen Junior High School. She soon hears a rumor about an incident a year earlier in a third-grade classroom: that "Judas was killed by four other Judas." She also learns that the house next door to her new home is called the Hanayashiki, or "Flower House," and is feared by the local students. Told that Hana, who lives in the Flower House, would know about Judas, Alice sneaks in and finds her reclusive classmate Arai Hana, who has stopped attending school.¹^•⁶

The two girls then set out to solve what the film calls "the world's smallest murder case," an adventure that takes them across the city and into the lives of a series of eccentric characters.⁶^•⁷ The Japan Media Arts Festival jury described the film as a comical portrayal of young girls who take each small moment earnestly, worrying and laughing as they go.⁶

Relationship to Hana & Alice (2004)

The film is an original-story prequel to Iwai's 2004 live-action film Hana & Alice, covering the episode of how the two girls met.¹ The Japan Media Arts Festival account states that Iwai conceived it immediately after making the 2004 film and gathered the same cast, so that Yu Aoi and Anne Suzuki voice the characters they had played a decade earlier.⁶ The Chicago Reader critic Andrea Gronvall wrote that the rotoscope mode allows the stars of the original to plausibly reprise their roles.⁴

Production and rotoscoping

Why rotoscoping. Iwai explained that the process began with live-action filming, which was then traced to create the animation, combined with 3DCG in this production.⁸ He said the choice grew from producer Tomohiko Ishii's aim of advancing 3DCG technology in animation and from his own curiosity about the possibilities of rotoscoping.⁹ Because the actresses had aged a decade since the 2004 film, rotoscoping let them play their younger selves rather than requiring a recast.¹⁰ Iwai consulted Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki about using the technique, which by then was considered an old method.¹¹

A difficult production. Iwai drew more than 2,700 storyboards for the film, from which the animation was created.¹² At a 2015 event marking the home-video release, held with director Makoto Shinkai, Iwai described the production as chaotic, saying he did not understand how anime production worked and that problems surfaced only as work proceeded.¹³ He later said that after the theatrical release he continued making corrections and declared the Blu-ray edition released on August 12, 2015 to be the completed version.¹⁴

The key creative staff included Yuuhei Sakuragi as CG director and Haruko Kuno as rotoscope animation director, with Takaguchi Hiromichi as art director.¹ The production committee included Nippon Television Network, Rockwell Eyes, Steve N' Steven, Toei, Pony Canyon, and Shogakukan.¹⁵ The film received support from the Agency for Cultural Affairs' arts promotion subsidy program, which its producers credited with strengthening the project financially.¹⁶

The 19th Japan Media Arts Festival jury praised the film for bringing into animation the timing and atmosphere of people actually speaking through its use of live action, and noted that the animators drew passages they would normally not draw, making the case for live action's inclusion.¹⁷

Release and reception

The film opened in Japan on February 20, 2015.¹ Nestlé Japan served as special sponsor through its Kit Kat brand, and a specially edited short version by Iwai was streamed on the company's Nestle Amuse web cinema.¹² It was selected as one of the Crystal Award-nominated features at Annecy 2015, where 2,605 works from 95 countries were submitted that year.¹¹ The New York International Children's Film Festival gave the film its New York premiere in its 2016 festival, recommending it for ages 9 and up.⁷

Critics received the film warmly. On Rotten Tomatoes it held a Tomatometer score of 78% from four reviews.¹⁸ Peter Debruge wrote that the film mixes elements of mystery and ghost story into an account of the girls' blossoming friendship, and that viewers quickly forget they are watching animation because of the naturalism of the technique and writing.⁴ The Animation World Network review noted that the combination of CG and rotoscoping gives the animation a rough, off-the-cuff feel that suits the story of an imperfect friendship.¹⁹

Adaptations

Shogakukan published a novelization by the novelist Otsuichi, based on Iwai's original story; it first appeared as a tankobon and was reissued in bunko format on April 6, 2018, at 224 pages with ISBN 9784094065091.²⁰ A manga adaptation drawn by Harumi Hommani was also published by Shogakukan in Big Comic BROS.NET.²¹

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026