Get the tissues out, the maker of one of Crunchyroll's most emotional anime series has a new film
The creators of Anohana are back to break your heart again.
The makers of beloved anime series Anohana are reuniting for a brand new film which has just got a release date.
Fureru is the latest project from the Super Peace Busters creative team, who are made up of writer Mari Okada, director Tatsuyuki Nagai and artist Masayoshi Tanaka. The trio first worked together on the Toradora! anime, before moving onto arguably their best-known work - Anohana, an anime series about a group of friends shattered by loss during childhood. It's a proper tearjerker that you'll often find listed among the saddest animes you can watch.
They then followed this up with yet another bittersweet anime, 2015's The Anthem of the Heart, and then their most recent film - Her Blue Sky. The first teaser trailer for Fureru, which was revealed towards the end of last year, mainly used clips from their three previous projects to build hype for what's next, and potentially set the scene for the type of emotional rollercoaster we're all in for.
After previously being pencilled in for a fall 2024 release, it has now been confirmed that Fureru will be launching in Japanese cinemas on October 4 2024. The release date was announced recently alongside the film's first full trailer, which revealed a bit more about the story. As Crunchyroll explains, Fureru is a coming of age film set in Tokyo's Shinjuku area, which focuses on three childhood friends who find a hedgehog-like creature with magical powers, that forces them to explore their bonds together. The new trailer also featured a snippet of the anime's theme song, which is Monotone by Yoasobi - the artist behind Oshi No Ko's hugely popular opening Idol.
While details are still a bit on the ground, the premise of Fureru sounds like something that's perfect for fans of Anohana. That cult classic also has a magical MacGuffin, which in the case of Anohana (spoiler alert) is the ghost of the main characters' dead friend Menma, who hasn't passed through to the afterlife.
With her old childhood friend group splintered off and divided by the trauma they faced at an early age, Menma appears once again, to ask them to reunite to grant her final wish, and in the process heal their wounds and come back together.
If that brief description is already enough to start you welling up, then oh boy - are you in for one emotional ride. Anohana is a beautiful, moving tale that looks at grief, love, loss and how to find the strength to move on after something comes along that shatters your life in two. It's also got an incredible opening, with a song that perfectly captures the wistful, mournful and yet hopeful and uplifting feel of the anime. There's a full version of the opening song you can listen to, as well as the lovely ending song.
There are many reasons that Anohana will always be burned brightly in my mind, but one thing I'll always remember clearly is how - for some inexplicable reason known only to me - I decided to watch it back-to-back with another emotionally charged anime, Your Lie In April, and was left a blubbering mess by the end of it. If you've not seen either of these animes before, you should undoubtedly experience them - but maybe don't watch them back-to-back like me, and instead break it up with something light-hearted and funny in-between like Laid-Back Camp or Non Non Biyori.
If you want to watch Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, you can stream every episode with a Crunchyroll Premium subscription. The leading anime streaming service also has the excellent Your Lie In April in its library, if you want to watch that too.
If you're looking for more anime content, find out how the brilliant action anime Lycoris Recoil is getting a spinoff series, and how Crunchyroll is making a bunch of its shows free during the Olympics. We've also got an article about classic anime Ranma 1/2 making a return on Netflix later this year.