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Norn9 Games Get Stage Play in October

Otomate announced on Friday that its Norn9: Norn + Nonette game franchise will get a stage play adaptation that will run at the Sōgetsu Hall in Tokyo from October 17 to October 21. Yoshiki Maeno is directing the play, and Naomi Hiruta is penning the script.

The announcement lists the following cast members, but does not list roles for them:

• Yūichi Nakamura
• Ikuko Chikuta
• Ryō Tsuji
• Kōichi Takamatsu
• Taiyō Ayukawa
• Yūto Adachi
• Tatsumaru Tachibana
• Shōta Motokawa
• Yūki Matsunami
• Ryō Takeda
• Misuzu Nishizono
• Yasuna Kageyama
• Miyū Mogami
• Ginji Kawagishi
• Riku Midorikawa

In the original game, the player can choose between three different girls as the heroine, each with their own three male characters to romance. The game starts when a certain song transports a boy named Sorata Suzuhara to a different era and place. When Sorata regains consciousness, he finds himself standing in an unfamiliar place — an old town, awash with sepia tones. The scene is exactly like the Meiji and Taishō-era pictures he had seen in textbooks. He encounters three girls and nine young men in this world, and embarks on a journey in the skies with them and the giant Norn airship.

The original game debuted on the PSP in 2013. The game was ported to the PS Vita under the title Norn9 Var Commons in December 2014, and on iOS and Android devices last December. The Norn9 Norn + Nonette Last Era game shipped on the PS Vita in April 2015. Aksys Games released the Norn9 Var Commons version of the game in North America in November 2015.

The franchise's newest installment is Norn9 Norn + Nonette Act Tune (seen right), which shipped in October 2016. The game features stories set in the timeline of the original game, a "parallel story" that changes the game's theme to a fantasy scenario, and a "Cantabile" mode with a fairy tale-themed story.

A 12-episode television anime adaptation titled Norn9: Norn + Nonette premiered in January 2016. Sentai Filmworks licensed the anime for North America, and the series streamed on The Anime Network and Hulu as it aired in Japan. Sentai Filmworks released the anime on Blu-ray Disc and DVD in June 2017.

Sources: Norn9: Norn + Nonette stage play's official Twitter account, Nijimen