Child star Mayuko Fukuda (14) has been given her first lead role as a voice actress in the animated film "Maimai Shinko to Sennen no Mahou," directed by Sunao Katabuchi.

The movie is based on a fantasy novel by Akutagawa Prize-winning author Nobuko Takagi. Set in the Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1955, the story tells of a young daydreaming girl who winds up on a magical adventure connected to an incident a thousand years earlier.

To voice the role of Shinko, Fukuda put in a lot of effort to practice speaking in Yamaguchi-ben, while also having to study for the high school entrance exams. Although her grandfather is from Yamaguchi, Fukuda was born and raised in Tokyo. She expressed her nervousness about having her voice heard by the people in that prefecture.

Fukuda, who has been acting since the age of 4, got her first anime voice role in the 2007 movie "Piano no Mori."

It has been decided that "Maimai Shinko to Sennen no Mahou" will get a special screening at this year's Locarno International Film Festival, taking place August 5-15. The movie opens in Japan on November 21.