Weathering With You Forecasts 4K Blu-ray Release

Distributor GKIDS has announced that it will release the 2019 anime movie Weathering With You on a 4K Blu-ray.

According to GKIDS' preorder page, the new edition will feature the movie in "the highest possible quality." The Blu-ray will also include a number of bonus features, including a look back at director Makoto Shinkai's entire filmography, a clip of a talk show interview by journalist Yumiko Udo with the director, trailers and TV commercials for the movie, as well as a featurette about the movie itself. The disc will feature the movie with both its original Japanese audio, as well as an English dub, and subtitles in English, English SDH, French and Spanish. The new 4K edition of the movie can be preordered from GKIDS directly for $27.99 USD and is currently scheduled to be released on Jan. 4, 2022.

Weathering With You tells the story of Hodaka Morishima, a young boy who runs away to Tokyo. There he meets Hina Amano, a girl who is working to support her younger brother and who has the mysterious ability to control when it rains. The two decide to use Hina's powers to start a business, which guarantees sunny weather for weddings, flea markets, and other events, but the success of their new venture attracts the attention of the authorities and forces both Hodaka and Amano to confront the problems that they were trying to escape from.

The movie was the sixth feature-length anime to be helmed by Shinkai, who has quickly become one of the anime industry's most celebrated directors. After beginning his career with a brief stint at the video game developer Falcom (Ys, Trails in the Sky) Shinkai made his directorial debut with the animated short She and Her Cat in 1999, which was then followed up with the critically lauded Voices of a Distant Star in 2002. Shinkai's first feature length movie, The Place Promised In Our Early Days, was released in 2004 to widespread praise. Shinkai's breakout hit, Your Name, premiered in 2016. The magical-realism romance became the first anime film that wasn't created by Studio Ghibli to earn over $100 million at the Japanese box office.  An American live-action remake of Your Name is currently in production at Paramount Pictures. Minari director Lee Isaac Chung was originally attached to the project before exiting due to scheduling issues.

If you can't wait for the 4K Blu-ray release, Weathering With You is also currently available for streaming to HBO Max subscribers.

Source: GKIDS, Twitter