GKIDS picked up the rights to The Case of Hana & Alice for North American release a few weeks ago and they’re moving quickly to schedule it for a home video release. The film debuted back in 2015 and had some limited theatrical screenings but has otherwise fallen off the radar until this pickup to add to the film catalog that GKIDS continues to build. The company is working with Shout! Factory, where it’ll be a Blu-ray only release that, will land on September 17th, 2019. It’s listed with two hours of bonus materials that include:
- Interview with Yu Aoi and Anne Suzuki (voice actors)
- Film Completion Press Conference
- Film Premiere Stage Greeting
- Interview with Director Shunji Iwai
- Message from Makoto Shinkai (animator)
- Theatrical Trailers and TV Spots
The property is a prequel anime film to the live-action feature, which was simply called Hana & Alice. That came out back in 2004 after originally starting as a series of short films designed, of all things, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Kit Kat in Japan. The original film was directed, written and produced by Shunji Iwai, who has returned to direct this piece as well. This film is designed around showing how the two lead characters met for the film that’s already out there and both actresses returned to voice the characters.
The film is also got a manga adaptation that began in 2015 along with a novel.
Plot Concept: When Alice transfers to a new middle school, she hears an urban legend about a student who disappeared the previous year and is suspected to have been killed by his fellow students. Even worse, Alice discovers that she lives next door to his former house, a supposedly haunted home now occupied by a reclusive classmate named Hana. Hana and Alice decide to investigate this “murder case” together, but soon find their lack of detective skills may be an obstacle, in this unusual and charming film from famed writer-director Shunji Iwai, in which a shaggy-dog mystery tale ultimately gives way to a wonderfully nuanced story of young female friendship, and the fantasies and thrills of everyday teenage life.
