Teen actress Mirai Shida (16) has been chosen as the lead voice in the upcoming Studio Ghibli film “Karigurashi no Arrietty.” This will be Shida’s first voice acting role. In addition, she will be teaming up with Ryunosuke Kamiki (16), whose previous voice roles include the Studio Ghibli films “Spirited Away” and “Howl’s Moving Castle.”

The “Karigurashi no Arrietty” movie was in December. Adapted from the fantasy novel “The Borrowers” by Mary Norton, the story follows a family of “little people” who live beneath the floorboards of a house, surviving by secretly “borrowing” items from the humans who live there.

Shida plays the lead as Arrietty, one of the borrowers, while Kamiki plays Sho, the human boy who discovers Arrietty. The pair previously worked together in the 2007 drama series “Tantei Gakuen Q.”

Besides Shida and Kamiki, the film’s cast includes Tomokazu Miura (58) and Shinobu Otake (52) as Arrietty’s parents, Pod and Homily. Keiko Takeshita (56) plays Sho’s great-aunt, and Kirin Kiki (67) plays one of the human family’s helpers. Although the four of them have voice acting experience, none of them have been in a Studio Ghibli film before.

“Karigurashi no Arrietty” opens in theaters on July 17.

Source: tokyograph