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Natsume's Book of Friends Gets New Original Video Anime

Media retailer HMV reports that Yuki Midorikawa's Natsume's Book of Friends (Natsume Yūjin-Chō) manga is inspiring a new original video anime on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on February 5, 2014. The Natsume Yūjin-Chō: Itsuka Yuki no Hi ni (Natsume's Book of Friends: Sometime on a Snowy Day) anime will reunite the cast from the four television anime series, including:

• 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 
• Miyuki Sawashiro as Jun Sasada 
• Ryohei Kimura as Satoru Nishimura 
• Hisayoshi Suganuma as Atsushi Kitamoto 
• Ayumi Fujimura as Takashi Natsume (young)
• Miki Itou as Tōko Fujiwara 
• Eiji Itô as Shigeru Fujiwara
• Junichi Suwabe as Seiji Matoba

Takahiro Omori is once again directing the anime at the studio Brains Base. Also returning are series script supervisor Sadayuki Murai (from the last two television series), character designer Akira Takata, monster designer Tatsuo Yamada, art director Yukihiro Shibutani, color setting artist Hiromi Miyawaki, director of photography Hitoshi Tamura, editor Kazuhiko Seki, musical composer Makoto Yoshimori, and the sponsor NAS.

The original video anime will come with a second disc with a recording of the stage production "Sound Theatre x Natsume Yūjin-Chō ~Tsudoi Ongeki no Shō~" (Sound Theatre x Natsume's Book of Friends: A Sound Theatre Gathering). This production also reunites most of the main cast with some of the television guest stars:

• Hiroshi Kamiya as Takashi Natsume 
• Kazuhiko Inoue as Nyanko-sensei
• Kazuma Horie as Kaname Tanuma 
• Ryohei Kimura as Satoru Nishimura 
• Hisayoshi Suganuma as Atsushi Kitamoto 
• Takashi Matsuyama as One-Eyed Yōkai
• Hiroshi Shimozaki as Ox-Faced Yōkai
• Houko Kuwashima as Hotaru
• Kenji Hamada as Akifumi Sugino

The limited-edition release also includes a case with an exclusive illustration, a Nyako-sensei digital contents CD-ROM, a color booklet, and other extras.

The manga follows Takashi Natsume, a boy with the ability to see spirits. He inherits a strange book from his deceased grandmother containing the names of the spirits, and realizes that they are trapped by a binding contract. Natsume decides to free the spirits and dissolve the contracts.

Viz Media publishes the manga in North America, and the story has received four television anime adaptations, with the first season airing in 2008. Crunchyroll streamed the four anime seasons as they aired in Japan, and NIS America announced plans to release all four seasons on home video in North America. The manga already inspired an original anime DVD earlier this year.

Images © Yuki Midorikawa, Hakusensha/Natsume's Book of Friends Production Committee

Update: Second image and DVD info from Animate added. Thanks, GokuMew2