'Kimi no Na wa' cast news: Masami Nagasawa, Etsuko Ichihara join as new talents

Makoto Shinkai's "Kimi no Na wa." will have two more new voice-over artists to join the ever-growing talents brought together in this project. Masami Nagasawa ("Detroit Metal City") and Etsuko Ichihara ("Horus, Prince of the Sun") are the two most recent additions to the cast of the film based on Shinkai's novel. It will be the first time the two actresses will work on the same project, although their characters will not be doing any scenes together.

Nagasawa will play the role of Miki, an older schoolmate of Taki Tachibana's (Ryunosuke Kamiki). Ichihara is playing Hitoha, Mitsuha Miyamizu's (Mone Kamishiraishi) grandmother.

According to the film's official website, other actors also cast anew are Ryō Narita and Aoi Yūki, playing Mitsuha's classmates Katsuhiko Teshigawara and Sayaka Natori, respectively; Nobunaga Shimazaki and Kaito Ishikawa who will take on the roles of Taki's classmates Tsukasa Fujii and Shinta Takagi, respectively; and Kanon Tani who will take the role of Mitsuha's younger sister, Yotsuba Miyamizu.

In Japan, the film "Kimi no Na wa." will be coming out on Aug. 26. Its trailer was released last month and features the song "Zen Zen Zense" performed by RADWIMPS, the Japanese rock band.

The trailer's narrative, roughly translated, tells the premise of the story.

Narrated, "The meeting of two people who will never meet."

Mitsuha says, "Ah!"

Taki replies, "Wha-!?"

Mitsuha asks, "This is... Is this...!?"

Taki catches on, "Are we switching places ..."

Together they burst out, "Inside our dreams!?"

And so begins the Shinkai's saga "of miracles and love." The story revolves around the two lead female and male protagonists, Mitsuha and Taki. The former is a rural high school student who dreams of life in the big city, Tokyo, while the latter lives in the city and is into architecture and fine arts.

They meet in a dream they shared but as the other, and not themselves. Mitsuha dreamed she was Taki, and vice versa.

Fans are excited to unravel the secret of why they share a dream, yet never meet.

Shinkai is the scriptwriter for the film while Masashi Ando is director of animation. Masayoshi Tanaka is the artist designing the characters. Animating the film is CoMix Wave, Inc.

The original novel on which the film is based will be published on June 18, ahead of the film's debut.