The Japanese distributor Hexagon Pictures presented its slate of upcoming anime and manga movies at TIFFCOM, the October 22-24 film market tied to the Tokyo International Film Festival. Chocolate Underground, the animated film version of Alex Shearer's Bootleg novel for children, will open in Japan in February. The story centers on two boys who run a bootleg chocolate factory and end up starting a revolution in a repressive country with anti-sweets laws. Production I.G already animated the novel as an online video series, and Aiji Yamakawa adapted the story into manga form.                                       

Director Shusuke Kaneko will reunite with his Death Note film actress Hikari Mitsushima to bring Yukari Ichijo's Pride manga to the silver screen. The January 2009 live-action project from Excellent Films (NANA) will follow two budding opera singers who go from rivals to "best partners." The manga has been serializing in Shueisha's Chorus magazine since its December 2002 issue, and the manga's eighth compiled volume has sold 270,000 copies.

Yu Yamada will star in Digital Hollywood's hybrid animated/live-action version of Yumiko Suzuki's Kanna's Big Success (Kanna Daiseikō Desu!) manga in January. The romance comedy manga follows one woman as she goes through a complete head-to-toe makeover with weight loss and becomes a big star. The manga was already adapted into a 2006 Korean film called 200-Pound Beauty.

Acclaimed photographer Amiy Mori will direct Digital Hollywood's film version of Omi Mitsuya's Koikyokusei romance manga under the title Days With You. Death Note and L change the WorLd actress Erika Toda will star. Hexagon Pictures and Birch Tree Entertainment are also releasing the martial arts film High-Kick Girl with karate tournament winner Rina Takeda in the lead role.