Hyakuem.” will be made into an animated feature film and released next year. It is a human drama about the 100-meter sprint. It is the debut serialized work by the author of “Chi.

It has been decided that the manga “Hyakuem.” (by Uo Yutaka) will be made into an animated film in 2025.

Additionally, an original illustration and comment from the author, Uo Toyo, has been released, and animation will be handled by Rock 'n' Roll Mountain.

The film is a passionate tale of the triumphs and failures of people who bet their lives on the 10-second flash of the 100m in the world of track and field. The human drama unfolds as Togashi, a sixth grade elementary school student whose only redeeming quality is his speed, describes the 100m distance as “giving power to time” and “determining the value of humanity,” and proclaims his belief that “if I could run 100m faster than anyone else, everything would be solved,” and Komiya, a gloomy transfer student who is a slow runner.

This is the serialized debut work of up-and-coming manga artist Uo Yutaka, who became the youngest person ever to win the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Manga Grand Prize for his work “Chi. -About the Movement of the Earth-“, and the series began serialization on the manga app “Magapoke” in 2018.

The director of this animated film is the talented creator Iwaizawa Kenji, whose first feature film, “Ongaku,” was nominated for the Annie Awards, known as the “Academy Awards of the animation world,” and has received high praise at home and abroad, and which ran for nine months in theaters in 2020. He has fans among many celebrities, including those in the film industry.

The special illustration released shows the main character, Togashi, standing on a truck under a blue sky, and his calm, yet somewhat melancholic gaze hints at the heated battle of men aiming to be the “fastest.”

Uoyutaka commented, “What kind of 'speed' will the characters, who are at the mercy of 'distance', be able to achieve through the 'time' of the film, which is different from the manga? As a viewer, I am excited and looking forward to the race.” Director Iwaizawa is enthusiastic, saying, “Because 'running' is a simple act, I feel the difficulty of expressing it every day, but I am giving shape to the image I have arrived at.”

In addition, “100 M.” has been selected for the “Work in Progress” category at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, known as the world's largest animation film festival.

On June 11th local time, Director Iwaizawa and others will take to the stage to give a presentation about the film, which is currently in production, to local movie fans and people in the film industry from around the world.

In addition, Animewik NEWS conducted an exclusive interview with Uo Toyo when the first volume of the comic was released in 2019, and he explained about the work, “When I was watching the 100m race at the Rio Olympics in 2016 on TV, one runner got disqualified for a false start. I thought that I could do it again even if I got a false start, but I was sent off, and I was shocked. “I can't run for about 10 seconds because of a slight difference. I don't know if I'll be able to compete in the next Olympics…” At the same time, I thought, “If I can conquer the 9 seconds and run faster than anyone else, I can earn a huge income and solve a certain amount of problems in the world. I thought that the theme of the work would be something that condenses that tension and excitement.”

“Sports manga often tell the story of a protagonist who is part of a club or team, but by making the protagonist an elementary school student who isn't involved in any club activities, I wanted to make the character more relatable, by allowing readers to remember their time in elementary school, when they would have sprinted 100 metres at full speed. I've never had anything to do with sports in my life, and I'm not good at running. But that's why I thought about the meaning of the existence of sports in my own way when I wrote this. I intended to write this as a human drama, rather than as a competition,” he said.

■ Staff information
Original story: Uo Toyo “Hyakuem.” (published in Kodansha's “KC Deluxe”)
Director: Kenji Iwaizawa
Character design and animation director: Keisuke Kojima
Art director: Keikan Yamaguchi
Producers: Yusuke Terada, Yuki Katayama, Akane Taketsugu
Animation: Rock'n'Roll Mountain
Produced by: Pony Canyon, TBS Television, Asmik Ace