'I Want To Eat Your Pancreas' Trailer: An Anime Romance That Will Shed Tears, Not Blood

No zombies can be found in the trailer for I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, despite what the title implies.  But there are plenty of tears in this sentimental romance film from writer-director Shin'ichiro Ushijima, who adapts the beloved Yoru Sumino novel of the same name into a sumptuous anime film that will now be making its two-day premiere in the U.S. See the I Want to Eat Your Pancreas trailer below.

I Want to Eat Your Pancreas may have a strange title, but it's got a rather conventional plot for a tragic high school romance: boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Girl is dying from a terminal illness in her pancreas and has only a few months left to live. But despite the lack of cannibalistic gore, I Want To Eat Your Pancreas has found acclaim in Japan and at various international premieres around the world.

And now it's making its way to the U.S. for a two-day special screening event: one on February 7, 2019 at 7:00 p.m. and one on February 10, 2019 at 12:55 p.m. The February 7 showing will be subtitled in English, while the February 10 screening will be the English-dubbed version.

Despite the odd title, this is a hugely popular story in Japan that has already been adapted into a live-action film released in 2017. I remember hearing about the hit live-action film, and thought for sure that once it came over to the States, it would receive a title change but I guess this is one way to get people's attention. As long as people expecting to see the next Night of the Living Dead don't get too angry that they've basically walked into an anime version of A Walk to Remember.

Here is the synopsis for I Want to Eat Your Pancreas:

Our unnamed protagonist happens to find a diary in a hospital one day. The diary belongs to his classmate, a girl named Sakura Yamauchi, who is revealed to be suffering from a terminal illness in her pancreas and only has a few months left to live. Sakura explains that the protagonist is the only person apart from her family who knows about her condition, so he promises to keep Sakura's secret. Despite their completely opposite personalities, the protagonist decides to be together with Sakura during her last few months.

I Want to Eat Your Pancreas will release theatrically through Fathom Events on February 7 and February 10.