KAMOGAWA HORUMO (BATTLE LEAGUE IN KYOTO) Promises Massive Spirit Battles ...

I'm feeling very mixed on Katsuhide Motoki's upcoming fantasy-action-comedy Kamogawa Horumo. On the down side - and it's a significant down - it's a Katsuhide Motoki film, Motoki being the director of the hugely successful (in Japan) but generally considered horrible (everywhere else) live action adaptation of Kitaro. On the plus? The cast includes Chiaki Kuriyama and Yoshiyoshi Arakawa, it features effects work by Gonzo Digimation and features university students in a competitive battle league in which they duke it out with using hundreds of spirits, or oni.

The story is about a group of university students who inevitably gets involved in playing a game of "Horumo" - a combat match where each person manipulates 100 spirits (referred to as "oni") to fight the opponent. Akira Abe, a freshman at Kyoto University student falls for his classmate Kyoko, and soon ends up at a mysterious club called “Kyoto University Azure Dragons", which turns out to be one of the Horumo teams playing the mysterious (and somewhat absurd) game which started over 1,200 years ago in the Heian period. The heat rises as you see the 2,000 CGI created spirits wage fierce battles against the backdrop of breathtaking beautiful city of Kyoto. Let the battle begin!

The first teaser showed nothing much at all but there is a second one now that shows some of the effects and the general look of the picture. It's enough to trigger some cautious optimism. You can check it below the break.