NIS Announces Natsume's Book of Friends Season 3 Premium for March!

NIS has sent over the paperwork for their Natsume's Book of Friends Season 3 premium release, and we now have it up on the store site for pre-order:

Natsume's Book of Friends Season 3 DVD/BD Combo Collection (Premium Edition)

Each collection includes a hardcover art book, “Natsume’s Book of Friends,” (full color, 32 pages) which provides a deeper viewing experience with detailed character info, an episode guide, rough sketches, and Japanese DVD package illustrations. The set will street on March 5th and carry an MSRP of $69.98, but of course you can pre-order it from RACS for 30% off that price.

And yes, we are aware this the S3 set will be getting BD treatment as a BD/DVD combo set where the first set was DVD only. I've asked NISA to comment on that.

Synopsis: Takashi Natsume has always been shunned by those around him because of his mysterious ability to see yokai. Eventually, he came into possession of his grandmother Reiko’s “Book of Friends,” and together with his bodyguard Nyanko-sensei he set out to return the names of the yokai contained within it. Since then, he’s found a home with the Fujiwaras and surrounded himself with friends at school. Little does he know he's about to be dragged unwittingly into further trouble...

UPDATE: NISA gives us the official word on why the 1st Natsume set (S1-2) was DVD only:

"We originally planned to put seasons 1 and 2 together in the same Premium Edition because both seasons were released in Japan quite a while ago, and we felt that in order to be able to release seasons 3 and 4 in a timely manner, placing the first two seasons together was the best route for us. We are aware that seasons 1 and 2 became available in Blu-ray format earlier this year in Japan; however, in order to make the Season 1 & 2 Premium Edition affordable for our customers, we opted to release it on DVD instead of a Blu-ray combo. Timing was also a key factor; had we opted to go with Blu-ray, the original release of Season 1 & 2 Premium Edition would have been delayed as well."