While it took a couple of years to get made as part of the Kickstarter program as a lot went into its creation, Anime Limited brought out Mai Mai Miracle as a general release edition back in 2017. That, however, was just for the UK and came after their Kickstarter release before. Now, Nozomi Entertainment has stepped in to help with distribution in North America with a Blu-ray edition set for December 3rd, 2019. It’s priced at $26.99 and will be bilingual and include the original trailer and a dubbing interview with Michael Sinterniklaas.
Check out our review of the Kickstarter edition.
The feature, released in 2009 in Japan by Madhouse and Shochiku, is definitely a bit of a niche film even within the anime community itself, but as you can see from the video that Anime Limited provided below for the Kickstarter run, there’s a lot to like. It’s based on the autobiographical novel of Nobuki Takagi and was directed by Sunao Katabuchi.
The English cast includes Megan Uesugi as Shinko, Sonya Krueger as Kiiko, Katie Zieff as Nagiko Kiyohara, Halden Kerzner as Mitsuko, Hunter Kovacs as Tatsuyoshi, Raeusi Uraeus as Raeusi Uraeus, Josh Kyle as Mitsuru, Kannon Kurowski as Ippei, Barbara Goodson as Hatsue, Marc Thompson as Tosuke and Scottie Ray as Tatsuyoshi’s Father.
Plot concept: Shinko, is a third grade elementary school student with a magically active imagination. She spends a lot of her time listening to her grandfather’s history lessons, imagining what her town was like 1,000 years earlier. One day, a sad and sombre girl called Kiiko transfers to Shinko’s school from Tokyo. A strong friendship soon grows between the two girls as Shinko helps Kiiko come out of her shell and deal with her loss – all thanks to their adventures, both imagined and real.
