Sumikko Gurashi confirms a fifth film for 2027

San-X has confirmed a fifth Sumikko Gurashi film. The working title is Sumikko Gurashi Movie 5, the release window is 2027, and the announcement went up on the character company's own site on 30 September alongside a celebration illustration from the series' creator, Yuriko Yokomizo.

The detail that matters is who gets the story this time. Since the first Sumikko Gurashi film in 2019, the series has handed each of its five main characters the centre of a story in turn, and the fifth instalment finally belongs to Neko. San-X's own write-up makes a point of it: the shy cat stands blushing at the front of Yokomizo's drawing, nudged forward by Zassou, the weed it spends most of its time hiding behind, clutching a number five that is still blank. The other characters hold numbers decorated with motifs from the films they already carried.

Fifteen years, five films

The franchise reaches its 15th anniversary in 2027, which is the reason this announcement exists now rather than with a trailer. Sumikko Gurashi began life as a San-X character line and turned into one of the company's most reliable properties, with the sort of merchandise reach that keeps a brand on shelves long after its television slots have ended. The films followed from 2019, built around the five friends rather than a single hero, and the fifth arrives with a working title, a year and a piece of artwork, and nothing else.

There is a companion announcement attached to the birthday. The second film, 2021's Aoi Tsukiyo no Mahou no Ko - the one about the wizards who visit town on the night of the blue full moon - is going back into Japanese cinemas for four days, from 31 October to 3 November 2026, at 82 venues nationwide. The re-run borrows the film's own legend for its title, "five years on", and comes with newly produced footage that plays after the credits, plus a postcard drawn specially for the event and handed to everyone who turns up. Tickets are 1,700 yen for adults and 900 yen for children.

What is still missing

Quite a lot, if you are outside Japan. San-X has not named a director, a studio or a screenwriter for the fifth film, has not shown a trailer, and has said nothing about distribution beyond its home market. Earlier entries in the series travelled slowly and selectively, and there is no distributor attached to this one yet. For readers in the UK and the rest of Europe, the realistic route to a Sumikko Gurashi film has been home video and streaming rather than a trip to the cinema, and nothing announced so far suggests the fifth film will be the exception.

Our opinion

The smart money here is not on the new film, which is a working title and a promise, but on the re-release, which is the part that has actually been designed. Putting a five-year-old film back into 82 cinemas for four days, with fresh footage and a giveaway postcard, costs a fraction of a marketing campaign and gives San-X a live read on how many people still show up. It is a box-office rehearsal dressed as a birthday party, and it doubles as the first event of the 15th-anniversary programme, which means the celebration is being spent on selling the next film rather than on looking backward.

Neko as the lead is the quieter, cannier choice. The character is the one the series has never asked to carry a feature, and the announcement leans hard on that - the blank five in the illustration is doing the work of a teaser without revealing anything at all. It is charming, and it is also a hedge: a shy, easily embarrassed cat gives a film crew permission to make something small and gentle, which is exactly the register this franchise sells best. Whether that plays outside Japan, where the property is a shop-shelf acquaintance rather than a household name, is a question San-X has not attempted to answer yet.