Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures will take The Apothecary Diaries: The Late Lady's Treasure to cinemas outside Asia
The first feature film in the Maomao and Jinshi franchise, an original mystery by creator Natsu Hyuga, opens in Japan on December 11. Crunchyroll now holds its North American and worldwide rights, with overseas dates still to come.
Maomao's big-screen debut will not stay a Japan-only affair. On October 8 Crunchyroll said it now controls North American and global rights to The Apothecary Diaries: The Late Lady's Treasure, and that it will put the movie in cinemas in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment. The carve-out is precise: the deal leaves Asia out, yet India is covered. Overseas opening dates were not part of the news, and Crunchyroll says it will share them later.
Japanese audiences get it first, on December 11, 2026. No earlier feature has been made for the property; this is its first.
An original story rather than a novel adaptation
None of the light novels is being adapted here. Series author Natsu Hyuga wrote a fresh case for the movie. It opens with an imperial command: Jinshi must carry out a dead consort's last request, made half a decade earlier, and send her body home. Looking over the corpse, he finds no sign of decay at all; she looks merely asleep.
That riddle sends Jinshi, with Maomao along, to Binan-shu, a southern territory under the Bi family, and into a lively port built across canals. Maomao delights in plants and cures she has never come across, but the town is on edge, because a pirate crew is tearing the place apart looking for loot its late captain stashed. Then, on the day the consort is laid to rest, trouble breaks out and the plot is off and running.
Behind the camera
Norihiro Naganuma is the director, and TOHO Animation STUDIO is producing the animation. The announcement did not include a voice cast for the feature.
The TV series right now
The timing places the movie in the middle of an active period for the show. Its TV run started in October 2023, came back for a second season in January 2025, and opened a third on October 2, 2026, which Crunchyroll is carrying. Season 3 is being split, with its back half due in April 2027, so the December release sits in the gap between those two halves.
Hyuga's prose series carries illustrations by Toko Shino, and J-Novel Club handles it in English. There are also two different comic versions, one scripted by Itsuki Nanao with art by Nekokurage and one created solely by Minoji Kurata; Square Enix puts out the English manga.
Beyond the film, the brand is branching out further: a debut console game with a scenario overseen by Hyuga is slated for 2027, and a live-action series is in the works with Prime Video, with Mana Ashida playing Maomao.
Still to come
The next fixed date is the December 11 opening in Japan. Crunchyroll has yet to say whether foreign screenings will be subtitled, dubbed or offered both ways, or when theaters in its territories will get the movie.
