The Natsume’s Book of Friends expansion into the feature film territory as part of its 10th-anniversary period last year with Natsume’s Book of Friends the Movie: Ephemeral Bond. With NIS America having previously released the TV series, there was a curiosity to see how this would be handled, if at all. Aniplex USA recently revealed their plans to release the film on Blu-ray on November 26th, 2019 and has now caught up to that a bit by bringing out an English-subtitled trailer for it since there was little available online as prior trailers were region-locked in Japan.
The release is priced at $49.98 and includes a Nyanko-sensei sticker and illustration cards. On-disc extras include the Teaser, Special commercial, Trailer, and Extended Trailer.
Now, about the two seasons of the TV series that didn’t get a home video release yet… (and Mushishi!)
In terms of staffing, Takahiro Omori is again serving as the chief director but Hideki Ito is the hands-on director. Sadayuki Murai is handling the screenplay for it.
The cast includes Hiroshi Kamiya as Takashi Natsume, Kazuhiko Inoue as Nyanko-sensei, Sanae Kobayashi as Reiko Natsume, Akira Ishida as Shūichi Natori, Kazuma Horie as Kaname Tanuma, Ryohei Kimura as Satoru Nishimura, Hisayoshi Suganuma as Atsushi Kitamoto, Miyuki Sawashiro as Jun Sasada, Rina Satou as Tōru Taki, Miki Itou as Tōko Fujiwara, Eiji Itō as Shigeru Fujiwara, Satsuki Yukino as Hiiragi, Akemi Okamura as Hinoe, Takaya Kuroda as Misuzu, Chō as Chōbihige, Takashi Matsuyama as One-Eyed Middle Class Yōkai, Hiroshi Shimozaki as Ox-Faced Middle Class Yōkai, and Kyouko Chikiri as Kappa.
Viz Media is currently releasing the manga and is caught up to the Japanese releases.
Check out the official site and Twitter.
Plot concept: A kind yet sad lie was told.
Natsume has been busy, navigating between humans and yokai when he coincidentally reunites with an old classmate, Yuki. The reunion brings back painful memories of a certain yokai. Meanwhile, Natsume also becomes acquainted with Yorie Tsumura, a woman in the memories of a yokai whose name Natsume had returned. Yorie knows much about Reiko, and now lives a peaceful life with her only son, Mukuo. Interacting with this family is comforting for Natsume, but a mysterious yokai has been lurking in their town. On the way back from investigating, a “yokai seed” that had latched itself to Nyanko-sensei drops into the Fujiwara Family’s garden and grows overnight into a fruit tree. When Nyanko-sensei eats a fruit that is somewhat shaped like himself, he suddenly splits into three!
