#Summer in Andalusia Anime Film Blu-ray Coming Out on March 11

AnimEigo and MediaOCD have announced that the home media Blu-ray release of the 2003 Nasu: Summer in Andalusia anime film will be released on March 11, 2025. The release is in partnership with Synergetic.

The new Blu-ray release includes a new retrospective interview with the director Kitaro Kosaka, where he discusses his storied career and his past work with Studio Ghibli. 

The Blu-ray features for the home video releases are listed below: 

• • Interview with director Kitaro Kosaka and voice cast
• • Official trailers
• • Contains 5.1 and 2.0 lossless Japanese audio, English subtitles
• • Full feature storyboards
• • Feature film: 47 minutes

Kosaka directed and wrote the screenplay for the film, as well as contributing character designs. He previously served as an animation director on Hayao Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle and The Wind Rises. His most recent anime film is 2018’s Okko’s Inn. 

Other staff members for the film included Naoya Tanaka (Only Yesterday, Pom Poko background artist) as art director, Hisao Shirai (Millennium Actress, My Neighbor Totoro) and Katsuyoshi Kishi (Rozen Maiden) as photography directors, and Toshiyuki Honda (Metropolis, Tokyo Babylon) as music composer. Madhouse handled the animation production. 

Nasu: Summer in Andalusia was also the first Japanese anime film to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival. A sequel titled Nasu: A Migratory Bird with Suitcase was released in 2007. 

The film itself is based on Io Kuroda’s three-volume slice of life comedy manga that was serialized in Kodansha’s Monthly Afternoon magazine from November 2000 to October 2002.

AnimEigo describes the main synopsis of Nasu: Summer in Andalusia as: 

It’s been a nonstop swelter in Andalusia this summer—even before the hot-blooded cyclists of this year’s La Vuelta came zooming in! Competing as a second-string racer for a third-rate sponsor, Andalusian native Pepe Benengeli isn’t exactly the favorite to win. Well, that is unless you’re talking to the folks at his brother’s wedding reception! But when a series of mid-race revelations leave him at a crossroads, Pepe explodes in an all-out attack toward the finish line! Some of the teams or riders featured in Nasu were notably influenced by the name and/or uniforms and techniques used by actual international cycling teams or riders in the early 2000s.

Pre-orders for the film are now available on MediaOCD’s official website, which includes a limited cardboard slipcover. Shipping will only be available in North America. 

Source: press release