Sooo? Anybody here?

yup, 4 weeks and 3 days now post disk-release. has nobody found it yet? because i just checked Crunchyroll for S7 and they're still only listing the 12 TV episodes.

That explains why I couldn't find it anywhere.

@GeekyGami Wednesday will make it 6 weeks post disk release.

@KiliianSleipnir Is Natsume Yuujinchou truly just THAT unpopular?

I still have no idea why it's not a bigger deal.
Is it just unappealing to Western audiences generally?

... Is it because it technically gets put in the shoujo category?

@GeekyGami you keep forgetting, DISK-ONLY EXTRA\UNAIRED EPISODE.


it isn't the popularity. I AM THINKING, it is an error on the part of Crunchy for not knowing the 13th episode would exist and having it bundled up under the streaming/dub/sub rights contracts as the other 12 eps. trust me, Natsume IS POPULAR on Funi-Roll or they would have never bought the rights to the first few Seasons dubbed and subbed, which was done by NIS America Inc. THEN they wouldn't have created the dub/sub for every Season since those old projects were completed (all the movies AND Seasonal Special Episodes). ep13 (to my knowledge) does NOT exist anywhere except that final DVD/BR disk-extras. i don't think even Japan's legal streaming services has ep13 yet. otherwise an enterprising 'netizen' would have snagged the files, fansubbed em, and that would be out there on 'the grey-web'.

to gage the popularity using the MAL Statistics, just look at every OTHER Natsume entry here in the database for numbers of members. i'm looking at S1 page right now... 237,818 MAL Users marked S1 as Completed. if you look at the Score Stats on numbers of Users who rated S1 a 10-8 you addem up and that's 146,473 people... sure, that isn't in the 5-6 MILLION weekly viewers lots of TV shows on the American Big Four Networks can pull in... but these are MAL Users only, not a whole nations' worth of input.

you really think the age bracket and gender type bracket really means anything anymore to international otaku? shojo, shonen, seinen, josei... folks watch what they want no matter what some WEBSITE labels it as. the only reason Natsume gets lumped into shojo is because of the ORIGINAL FIRST manga periodical it was published in. look it up yourself, the manga has changed magazines to a different and more inclusive title.

@KiliianSleipnir
Idk where you’re getting your info from but Natsume’s is still published in Shoujo manga mag Lala (source: https://x.com/LaLa_info/status/1903959954320425253 on cover page for one of the mags this year or just check the wikipedia page or Japanese volume covers). While it was originally published in Lala DX, Lala's sister magazine, it is still very much published in a shoujo mag (from my understanding the reason it was moved was bc of its popularity and Lala DX being more of a supplemental magazine that Lala).

Anyway I’m assuming the lack of the 13th ep release is crunchy being stupid and incompetent, which is nothing unusual for them.

@Ienjoyblueice shrug, it was my understanding Natsume was moved to another magazine entirely and utterly not specifically shojo. if not? it really doesn't matter as i stated before "you really think the age bracket and gender type bracket really means anything anymore to international otaku? shojo, shonen, seinen, josei... folks watch what they want no matter what some WEBSITE labels it as."

also, don't quote a tweet... that's about as goofball as it gets. even 'official' twitter/X accounts are still to this day being 'spoofed' no matter what Mr. Musk tries to implement. next time go to the source website... like the publisher's site or the publication's website and check that/those out.

incompetence? no, i didn't say that. they're also not stupid and yes this is unusual. you don't need to insult the workers/employees by saying their company is stupid. this is a disk-only extra, how many times do i have to repeat myself? not EVERY piece of an anime gets picked up by everybody. Funimation didn't get ALL of Sankarea that was available, just the TV broadcast. Natsume's stand-alone specials (those not linked to a TV Season) or the movies haven't been dubbed yet, but they are on Crunchy with subs. Funi nor Crunchy are/were streaming ALL the disk extras they DID put on the English Dub DVD/BR for 'The Testament of Sister New Devil' both seasons... same as all the High School DxD content, it made it on the disks... but it isn't all being streamed. episode 0 of HS DxD Hero IS streaming on Crunchy. Hori-san to Miyamura-kun the original OVA disk-only series was released in Japan: 1st disk on September 26, 2012, the 2nd on March 25, 2014, the 3rd on March 25, 2015, the 4th on December 14, 2018, finally the 5th and the 6th disks came out on May 25, 2021. even though Crunchy has HoriMiya TV Seasons 1 & 2 all 26 eps... they don't have those 6 disks. Strike The Blood, Crunchy stopped acquiring that franchise before its anime was completed... because once again they were Disk-Only OVAs NOT TV Seasons. the 35 STB eps Crunchy does have WERE on TV. even The Kingdom of the Valkyria episodes which were originally 2 eps of OVAs inbetween TV S1 & 2 which were later-on broadcast a little bit before TV Season 2 started.

ya just gotta accept it bubba, sometimes 'stuff' just doesn't happen. some disk cracker will eventually pick up Natsume's Book of Friends S7 last DVD/BR disk, scan it, crack the codes, fiddle with the subtitles, and upload it somewheres on the internet. eventually. or Crunchy will specifically buy the rights to ep13 and put it up on their services. shrug. till either of those happen? buy a Region 2 Encoded DVD/BR player and buy the actual goshdarn disk YOURSELF from Japan and watch ep13.

@KiliianSleipnir the tweet is from the official manga magazine page. You'd realize if you clicked on it. If you want another source, here it is straight from the manga magazine's website: https://lala.ne.jp/sakuhin/?id=3 As I also mentioned in my original post, this is explicitly mentioned on Natsume's wikipedia page, as well as on the volume covers. I dislike when people spread misinformation. I think you're the real "goofball" for that. I wasn't disagreeing with your point about international fans, I simply think you should actually do research before you say something, and not respond with name calling when someone corrects you.


I don't know how call the corporation of crunchy "incompetent" leads to insulting the workers (corpo owners are very different from the actual employees who do the work). Crunchy also doesn't seem to care for its workers all that much.....
https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/crunchyroll-voice-actors-mob-psycho-union/
https://animehunch.com/crunchyroll-accused-of-throwing-away-fan-mails-addressed-to-va-david-wald-distributing-its-contents-to-staffs/
https://www.reddit.com/r/jobs/comments/1ik3oum/crunchyroll_fires_employee_after_requesting_an/

I'd also argue that their mishandling of the dirty pair dub does indicate incompetence.
https://boundingintocomics.com/anime/after-three-years-over-731000-in-backing-and-production-companys-purchase-by-crunchyroll-dirty-pair-english-dub-kickstarter-still-yet-to-be-fulfilled-and-its-doubtful-that-it-ever-will/

Or maybe the loss of many anime recently as a result of their merger with funimation?!
https://www.japanpowered.com/anime-articles/disappearing-anime-crunchyroll

So yes, I do dislike the company and I don't believe there is much coordination going on between the higher ups as of recent (mainly due to the merger with Sony). I do understand it is a disk only extra; you don't need to be rude and condescending about that. It was a throwaway comment mainly because I already have a negative view of the company. But sorry for expressing some mild negativity toward a giant corpo that grosses hundreds millions a year.

geez, guys, calm down, dont need to argue to each other.
take months until come out from japan, sadly it takes time, its like movies .

it's been 2 months today, I come back here and see the most unnecessary fight in a discussion thread about a release date.

you guys are absolutely cooked

@Ienjoyblueice you really are harping on that lala crap for no reason. cite the official websites NOT a tweet. tweets are NOT valid sources due to? spoofing as i already mentioned. i did click on the link you provided, it was 1 piece of art and some manga titles. i already know about lala and the whole thing, blablabla i FORGOT sheesh! my memory's not perfect! i've got 30+ YEARS of anime info floating around my brainpan...

SONY Jp. owns Crunchy, that wasn't the merger, Funi-Roll was. so now you're insulting not just their American employees but their Japanese owners? goofball? yeah. don't cite tweets, that is goofball. i didn't call YOU a goofball, just what you DID. you called Crunchy stupid and incompetent. way too mature to name call yourself hmm? also, YES you call a company names... guess what a company is? a group of people. you just insulted all their employees too. you don't like being called out for that? don't do it. be polite.


i already knew about the bullcrap Union lies and junk on Mob 100. ONE employee left, voluntarily. Mob's VA Kyle McCarley was NOT FIRED. for ONE season, the final one. he didn't leave or quit for any OTHER seasons before that did he? he left the final season, ONLY BECAUSE he sits on the ADVISORY COMITTEE for SAG-AFTRA for voice actor relations and complaints. that ONE ISSUE on his ADVICE to Crunchy PRE SONY PURCHASE BTW to get into discussions, just talks! on Union contracts for Voice Talents ONLY! not general employees. general employees at Crunchy can NOT join the ACTORS' union. just the voice talents. i sat and watched Kyle McCarley's YouTube Video commenting on why he left Mob100 in the final season... the. day. he. posted. it.

fanmail i already knew that, gifts sent to Crunchy for that ONE VOICE ACTOR David Wald. not anybody else, because the fans mailed the GIFTS TO CRUNCHY HQ not the manager or other contacts for the actor. yes those items were opened, some items were taken home, stolen, discarded etc. those persons who did that were disciplined and if needed terminated for cause. did Mr. Wald call his local US Postal Inspector's Office and file a FORMAL FEDERAL LAW CLAIM? no, he didn't. no official US Government Investigation was opened.

i knew about BOTH of these 'incidents' when. they. happened.

thanks for that lil tidbit on DirtyPair, never heard of that effort to revive a dub project. shrug. unless somebody (that article is ALMOST a year old) physically goes to Kickstarter with a court order for their records, THEN gets more court orders for Crunchy's records and Nozomi/Right Stuff's records, AND a Japanese Court Order to get the original rights holders' records... nobody is going to know what's wrong. sooo... nonissue. nobody knows and nobody has that big of a wad-o-cash to do the legal eagle work.

the rights and such between Funi Crunchy Sony have been documented ever since the FTC investigation into possible monopoly law violations by SONY Jp owning a little bit more than Half of Funi's stock and buying all of Crunchy and merging the two. some rights and shows and such vanished. it. happens. other rights were picked up by Disney/HULU/Netflix and others. shrug. stuff happens. Funi-Roll was transparent and LISTED when and where and what would be transferred between the two entities. you can't always get what you want.

Sony and Crunchy bought RightStuff outright 100% for their: marketshare of customers, stock of items, distribution contracts for print media, and probably didn't give two hoots about the aftermarket production pieces of RightStuff... as they were a miniscule AND REALLY SERIOUSLY BASIC AND CRUDDY PRODUCTION group to start with. Nozomi had not put out A SINGLE TITLE in five years before the 2022 purchase, how do i know this? i was a Customer of RightStuff. i shopped with them within 6 months of them opening their website for anime sales operations AND i had their bi-yearly paper catalogue mailed to my house all that time. Amazon, was RightStuff's downfall... even with AniplexUSA selling 70-80% of their North American Disk Distributions through RightStuff... Amazon STILL was kicking RightStuff butt constantly on prices, availability of titles, shipping punctuality, order tracking accuracy, lower total order cost for free shipping... at one time RightStuff required $50-$75 value on a domestic US purchase for free shipping. Amazon kept theirs at $25. add in Amazon Prime with free overnights and next day air-freight shipping, whereas RighStuff never got faster for ANY cost in shipping than 3-5 DAYS? yeah, Amazon was killing them.

i don't cite reddit at all, that is just user blather and whatnot. give the sources the redditors supposedly cited... otherwise, NOT a valid piece of research. i don't read reddit except maybe once or twice a month, if that often. it is about as bad as Facebook and TickTock and Twitter/X for mis/dis-information and influence peddling. if somebody says to me, 'oh i read this on reddit!' i just stare at them and wonder why they are wasting my limited lifespan with their nonsense.

@LucasRukhasu yup, disk only stuffs do take forever, just like theatrical releases. unless 'somebody' gets the rights 'early' in the production process. sometimes 'some certain streaming companies' are AHEAD of things. for example, 'Burn The Witch' was streaming on Crunchyroll, WITH English dub and Subs THE DAY OF it coming out in Japan on TV and streaming over-there. i watched BTW 'afterwards' via grey-web streaming, but the paying customers on Crunchy that wanted to stay awake (in N. America) till o'dark-thirty in the AM watched BTW 'live'. it also helps if 'some certain streaming companies' are PAYING at least part of the 'bills' and joining in with the 'Big Yen Guys' funding an anime. like if ANIPLEX Jp/SONY is funding a show, or their main studio A-1 Pictures is working on it, you're pretty much 100% guaranteed the show is gonna be on Crunchy. Funimation/Crunchyroll has been the #1 pipeline for ANIPLEX's projects for a lonnnnng time. unless AniUSA/America whatever their division 'over here' is calling itself these days is going to release it themselves... SAO, The -gatari Franchise etc.

it just burns my toast that Crunchy hasn't even announced ep13 in their news section (i just checked minutes ago) and it has been 8 weeks (as of Wed. June 18th) since the DVD/BR disk the episode was on came out in Japan.

also, Ienjoyblueice started the whole 'argument' by being wrong, rude, and disrespectful, "Anyway I’m assuming the lack of the 13th ep release is crunchy being stupid and incompetent, which is nothing unusual for them." this Forum thread was normal and plain till ^ that post and i felt they needed to be called out on it.

today marks Week 13 since this disk was released in Japan. i just finished checking Crunchyroll, ep13 isn't there. i searched their News section for NBoF nope, no new news. i sailed the bay of pirates and petted nyaa and no love there either.

@KiliianSleipnir

I am sadness 😔

It just got out on high seas, but it seems it's just series introduction and some commentary by staff.

@Erebus25 i think you got the wrong one. ep13/'The Special' every single other TV Season for Natsume has been a full episode just like the other 12 that were broadcast normally that Season. one of them was two short episodes/stories combined into one ep. another of 'The Specials' was released online officially by Crunchyroll a while after the disk went on sale in Japan... maybe a month or so after the DVD/BR release. why would a Disk-Only Extra Episode be a 'recap' with commentary?

@KiliianSleipnir I would like to be wrong, but I don't think I am
https://ibb.co/601GSD0t

They use weird kanji for 7, but it is - https://jisho.org/search/%E6%BC%86

Was there another special before season 7? (it says housou chokuzen - right before broadcast) I don't see it in the entries.

@Erebus25 as far back as i can remember, i've been watching Natsume since Ep1 S1 when it first came out on the grey-web streaming sites... each Season has had 10-12 broadcast episodes but 13 episodes total. in S5 and S6 the 12th and 13th ones are called 'The Special(s)' and 'in total' The Specials normally come out in Japan 2 ways.
1 as a disk-only extra episode(s) included in The Extras on the final disk for that Season.
2 streamed online officially THEN also put on the DVD/BR final disk for that Season.

after a few years when Crunchyroll started streaming the subs officially then the previous company's dubs (S1-4 if i'm not mistaken) and i forget the previous dubbing company's name. they don't dub anime at all anymore, they only modify their Japanese parent company's games nowadays... but i digress...

Crunchy first of all started numbering the episodes 1-10 and sometimes 12 THEN listing The Specials (all of them) separately by themselves. after a bit, maybe AFTER the Funi-Roll merger? perhaps? the numbering CHANGED on Crunchy to 1-13 episodes in each Season and The Specials' individual listings vanished. on Crunchy in-between S5 & 6 there is a stand-alone OVA "Nyanko-sensei & The First Errand" 11/15/2016 Crunchy describes it as: "Nyanko-sensei runs away from Natsume to chase a dragonfly. He finds himself stuck with two young children on their first errand. He keeps trying to leave, but the area of the forest they're in is filled with dangerous youkai. Can he help them complete their errand, while still retaining his sanity?"

The Natsume Movie "On a Certain Snowy Day" first released in Japanese theaters 5 Feb. 2014 then on-disk (but not in a seasonal disk!) is NOT on Crunchyroll presently. so they are missing that piece of Natsume.

MAL listing The Specials separately as their own entries is due to The Specials not being broadcast during each Seasons' Run on TV.

looking at the image you shared via ibb . co? Bing/Microsoft Edge states the image's text says:
Bonus version, SP just before broadcast [on line 1]
First time [on line 2]
Natsume's friend book [on line 3]

Google Image Search Translate states:
Friend SP just before broadcast [line 1]
First time [line 2]
Natsume's Book of Friends [line 3]

considering i'm NOT fluent in kanji (except for a few numerals) i can't even begin to translate Japanese text except MTL. :) so i'm no help at ALL with your image. but, i'm nigh on certain what you got was an 'in-between' special for the 'gap' between S6 and S7.

if you have a minute here's a good idea! get on Natsume's official JAPANESE website and look up their 'news' section. i BET there is an announcement of your 'episode' somewhere in the press releases!

i know DanMachi used to do a 'recap special' after Season 1, broadcast before Season 2, and every? maybe? season after that??? where Bell and Hestia do commentary (in character) on scenes from the previous Season. sometimes they show up on-disk in Sentai FilmWorks' disk extras, but not dubbed if i recall my disks in my collection correctly. i'm not even sure if MAL has entries for these DanMachi 'pre-season recaps'.

TenSura did MULTIPLE in-between recap episodes where Veldora and then Ifrit would do in-character commentaries on the previous Season's scenes. in three of TenSura's Seasons three other characters even did their OWN little specials giving their personal perspectives on the recap Scenes. if i'm remembering correctly MAL DOES have entries for those TenSura 'in-between recap specials'... i think.

so a 'pre-season recap special' isn't a crazy idea to put out there. buuut... as far as I'M AWARE... just me though! Natsume hasn't done one so far. :D

@KiliianSleipnir I would like to be wrong, but I don't think I am
https://ibb.co/601GSD0t

They use weird kanji for 7, but it is - https://jisho.org/search/%E6%BC%86

Was there another special before season 7? (it says housou chokuzen - right before broadcast) I don't see it in the entries.

That's good news then.

@laBelphe thanks for the additional info, didn't see that post.

@KiliianSleipnir While there are kanjis for 20, 30 and such, it's not a common writing. Usually you would see 二十(20), 三十(30), 四十(40) and so on. 22 is 二十二.
Multiple kanji for 10's is not used.
Decimal system works for all numbers, same as for us, but they count only with specific amounts. So 千(1000), 万(10 000), 億 - hundred million, ...
I'm not sure what brought up the subject though? This - "第十一話 ・第十二話 ・第十三話(特別編)"?
First kanji 第(dai) is prefix for ordinal number, then is the number itself, and last kanji 話(wa) is counter for episodes.

what are you guys even arguing about at this point?

1. there IS a 13th episode (special) included on the 5th bluray volume released on April 23rd

2. it is NOT the recap/promo that Erebus25 stumbled across somewhere

3. nobody can find the actual special episode anywhere

so we're just waiting for someone to buy the bluray and pass the disc around after class

this is getting ridiculous. FOUR MONTHS, AND NO SIGN OF THE EPISODE ANYWHERE???

@Herman97 yeah, in my experience 30-60 days after the specific disk is released in Japan/internationally is how long it takes raw files to pop up on places like nya etc. now fansubbing/editing/uploading can take twice that bracket of time, depending on how 'into it' or 'experienced' the person(s) doing the work are. plus the volume of work they're dealing with... the Infinity Castle First Movie popped up online within 72h of the first theatrical release date... for me. it was of course a camrip, filmed in-theater... but the video was done well with high quality. the audio didn't suck entirely. but the fansubs were ATROCIOUS! there were 5-10 MINUTE long stretches of dialogue without a single subtitle. now i haven't watched the 'newest' files out there just yet, but they'll certainly improve.

i know the first DVD OVA series for HoriMiya took not only for-ev-errrr! to release on disks. but the fansubber group i knew of doing the disks took upwards of THREE MONTHS for each disk's content to be created and put out online. the final disk's files didn't show up for SIX MONTHS after their blog posted the fact that they had bought the final disk... the day after it was released in Japan. now, that group did great work! i enjoyed every minute of their fansubs for that series. i just wished their productivity was a bit speedier. :D

to compare in the other direction. the one group i knew of fansubbing the Strike the Blood OVA disks put out after that franchise left TV Broadcasting and went 'direct to video' was fast. they had each disk done within 3 weeks. but their Engrish was nigh on UNINTELLIGIBLE! i've babysat five-year-olds with better speaking skills than those folks' typing and interpretations.

@KiliianSleipnir I guess fansubbing is one thing, but surely there has to be an official subbed release coming up at some point down the line?

I've mostly given up on Crunchyroll and other streaming services putting it out, but surely there'll be a bluray or something sold outside of Japan at some point, right??

It is finally here, guys :D

@shtrigga source??? i just checked North American Crunchy's Schedule and News sections as well as their S7 list of eps, nothing there.

i also dug through nyaa and piratebay and neither one of them has even a raw listed for ep13.

@KiliianSleipnir I downloaded it yesterday from nyaa land 🤔

@shtrigga mind mentioning the search parameters you typed in? exactly? i used every combo of search query words i could think of. natsume, book of friends, Yuujinchou, season 7 episode 13, season 07 episode 13, S07E13, special... the whole shebang... on both sites.

@KiliianSleipnir I can send you the link to the torrent in a message if you want? I just typed Natsume and it was the newest in the search