Add another notch to the Sentai Filmworks list of license acquisitions at Anime Expo this weekend as the company has announced that they’ve picked up the digital rights and home video rights for Natsuyuki Rendezvous. The series will get a home video release next year. The series is the latest to arrive from Fui TV’s popular noitaminA block. Based on the work of spirited female manga artist Haruka Kawachi, whose offerings are highly anticipated, this bittersweet romance is directed by Kou Matsuo (Kurenai, Yozakura Quartet) who will employ pre-scoring, or recording of the voice tracks before the animation is complete, for this ground-breaking series. Character designs are by Junichiro Taniguchi (Ryoko’s Case File) and music by Ken Muramatsu (Kurenai).
Plot Concept: Hazuki may be near-sighted, but he knows true beauty when he sees it and the delicate form of flower shop owner Rokka draws him in like a bee to honey. So, hoping to cultivate a relationship between them, Hazuki takes a part time job at her shop, only to discover two huge thorns preventing the nurturing of any romance. The first, the fact that Rokka is still grieving for her late husband Shimao, would be enough to snip most men’s ardor short, but it’s the second that really threatens to make Hazuki’s forlorn hopes wilt. Because while Shimao is most definitely deceased, he hasn’t yet departed and his spirit is still living in Rokka’s apartment! Except only Hazuki can see him, which leads to a very strange romantic triangle indeed. Are Hazuki’s chances with Rokka as dead as the man who still lives in her house? Or can he somehow make love blossom even though there’s an interloper pushing up the daisies between them? One way or another, the ground’s going to be rocky and someone or something’s likely to get nipped in the bud in NATSUYUKI RENDEZVOUS!
