American animation news outlet Cartoon Brew posted the first English-subtitled trailer for Entotsu-chō no Poupelle ~Yakusoku no Tokeidai~ (literally, The Promised Clock Tower), the sequel film to Studio 4°C’s anime film of Akihiro Nishino’s Poupelle of Chimney Town (Entotsu-chō no Poupelle) picture book, on Monday. The trailer reveals the film’s English title as CHIMNEY TOWN: Frozen in Time. The trailer is an English-subtitled version of the trailer that debuted in Japan in December 2025.
Image via Poupelle of Chimney Town film’s website
© 西野亮廣／｢映画 えんとつ町のプペル ~約束の時計台~｣製作委員会
The film will had its world premiere screening at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival in the Generation Kplus category, which focuses on young children in movies. The film screened at the festival on February 16 and 17, and will also screen on February 19, 20, and 21.
The film will open in Japan on March 27.
Yuzuna Nagase voices Lubicchi in the film, replacing Mana Ashida from the previous film. Masataka Kubota returns from the previous film as Poupelle.
New cast members include:
As before, Nishino will supervise the film’s production, and pen the film’s script, with Yūsuke Hirota returning as director at Studio 4°C. Lozareena performs the film’s theme song “Entotsu-chō no Poupelle.”
The film will be based on Nishino’s Tick-Tock ~Yakusoku no Tokeidai~ picture book, which shipped in 2019.
At a panel in Anime NYC in 2023, Nishino stated that the sequel would be very different from the first movie, with the plot revolving around a town with a clock tower stopped at 11:59. There is a conflict in the town between the people protecting the tower and the people hoping to fix it. In contrast to the first film’s theme, which Nishino said was “Let’s go, get this,” he said the second film’s theme would be the opposite, “wait patently.”
ANN spoke with Nishino and director Yūsuke Hirota shortly after the announcement of the sequel at the Animation is Film Festival in late October 2021. The duo confirmed the idea of other films in the future of the Poupelle franchise at the time.
Eleven Arts began screening Poupelle of Chimney Town across North America in January 2022, and it describes the film:
Poupelle of Chimney Town is the story of young Lubicchi living among the thick smoke from the chimneys of his isolated town, yearning to see the “stars” —to know the truth —his father always told him about. One Halloween night he meets Poupelle, a man made of garbage, and together they look to the sky as their adventure begins. Spectacularly beautiful, filled with inspiring performances and splendid music and sound effects, and produced at Tokyo’s famed Studio 4ºC, Poupelle of Chimney Town brings laughter, tears and joy.
The film opened in Japan in December 2020 and ranked at #4 and earned 322,998,700 (about US$3.13 million) in its opening weekend.
Hirota (CGI director for Berserk films, Harmony) directed the film, with Nishino serving as production supervisor, original creator, and writer. Atsuko Fukushima (Genius Party, Robot Carnival) designed the characters.
Source: Cartoon Brew (Jamie Lang)
