Danica Davidson
April 24, 2025 
Studio 4°C has spent seven years creating the movie ChaO, which is hand drawn with more than 100,000 drawings involved. It will hit Japanese theaters on August 15, and ahead of this a trailer dropped to tell us more about the cast.
ChaO Trailer
Here is the announced cast:
- Yuichiro Umehara (Goblin Slayer in GOBLIN SLAYER) plays Roberta
- Ryota Yamazato of the comedy duo Nankai Candies plays Shi
- Vocalist Kavka Shishido plays Maibei
- Kenta Miyake (All Might in My Hero Academia) plays King Neptunus
- Shunsei Ota of OCTPATH plays Juno
- Anna Tsuchiya (singing voice of Nana Osaki in NANA) plays the editor-in-chief
- Cookie! of comedy duo Yasei Bakudan plays Ambassador Omede
It was previously revealed that Oji Suzuka (Shōta Kazehaya in live-action Kimi ni Todoke) will voice Stephen, and Anna Yamada (Asirpa in Golden Kamuy) will voice Chao.
Yasuhiro Aoki, a character designer for Psycho-Pass – The Movie, is helming ChaO as the director.
Though the movie hasn’t even had its big theatrical release yet, it’s already been nominated by France’s Annecy International Animated Film Festival 2025 for the category of Feature Films. It will compete against anime The Last Blossom, as well as animated films made in Europe, Canada and China.
Director Aoki remarked, “I am amazed and thrilled at the same time! I am really happy because the staff poured a lot of passion into this film. A miracle story about Stephen and Chao. Sending this film to Annecy may also be the result of a series of miracles.”
Annecy gave this description for the movie:
ChaO Plot
In a near-future world where humans and mermen coexist, Stephen, a shipping engineer in Shanghai, develops a propeller called Air Jet that is harmless for marine life to promote peace between the two races. When Chao, a mermaid princess, pushes Stephen to marry her, their two worlds collide. As they struggle with their cultural differences, a tragic accident creates a bigger strain on their relationship.
Source: ANN, Crunchyroll
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
