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Ghibli's From Up on Poppy Hill Released on Blu-ray and DVD Monday

On Monday September 23, Studio Canal will release From Up on Poppy Hill, the Studio Ghibli film directed by Goro Miyazaki set in the 1963 port town of Yokohoma. (The film recently had a limited cinema release in Britain). It will be released on DVD, on Blu-ray (left) and in a Combo Pack Collector's Edition (right); the latter includes artcards. The film features two Yokohama teenagers, Umi and Shun, who strike up a friendship while campaigning to save their school's clubhouse. Their relationship seems to be becoming something deeper, but then Shun makes a shocking discovery that throws the couple's whole future into doubt. The film was scripted by Hayao Miyazaki (director of Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, father of Goro), who adapted the period story from a 1990 shojo manga called Kokuriko-Zaka Kara in Japanese, by Chizuru Takahashi (artist) and Tetsurō Sayama (story).

Also on Monday, MVM is releasing the second half of the series Bakemonogatari on Blu-ray. (The corresponding DVD was already released this July.) The series continues the weird and surreal adventures of a male student as he encounters various supernatural phenomona in present-day Tokyo, accompanied by a beautiful but intimidating girl. The series adapts NisiOisin's light novels. (The title Bakemonogatari is a wordplay on the Japanese term bakemono for supernatural creatures and the term monogatari for stories.)

Also on Monday, Manga Entertainment is releasing new DVD instalments of two of its action series. The third volume of One Piece (left) collects episodes 54 to 78 of pirate Luffy and his Straw Hat crew; while Naruto Shippūden Box Set 14 (below right) carries episodes 167 to 179 of the ninja series.