To say this one came in under the radar is an understatement.  I haven’t seen a single review or comment on social media or anime forums, but Yakusoku no Nanaya Matsuri is available through a major streaming service and packs a fairly solid pedigree, so I thought I would weigh in with a brief impressions post.

What is Yakusoku no Nanaya Matsuri?  An original net animation from two relatively new studios, XFlag (which is partnering with Trigger on their upcoming Promare anime) and Yokohama Animation Lab.  My suspicion based on both the staff involved and the production values is that one or both of these studios have major studio money backing them.  Director Murata Kazuya is a rather big name, over his long career having done a lot of work at places like Bones and Production I.G..  He’s surrounded by a team of established veteran players with similar big studio pedigrees.

There’s no explicit writing credit on Starlight Promises that I can see so I have no idea whether Murata-semsei (who’s more known as a director and animator) created the concept or someone else.  I think it’s a story that’s better served cold so I won’t spoil too much, but I would say if you’re a fan of the “good” Okada Mari catalog – stuff like AnoHana and Anthem of the Heart – Yakusoku no Nanaya Matsuri should be up your alley.  It’s not on that level in terms of writing, but the emotions (for me at least) come across as pretty heartfelt and honest.  It’s also thematically well-suited to the season – while it’s set around Tanabata (thus the original July 7th release date), it feels at least as tied into Obon, the festival usually observed in August (that’s your clue as to what the story is about, basically).

I’d also note that while there’s some CGI, for the most part Yakusoku no Nanaya Matsuri is a quite polished and fairly expensive-looking piece of work.  As it contains a lot of natural scenery along with fantasy elements, the background and animation teams have a lot to work with here, and they do a very fine job.  Whether it works for you emotionally or not (it did for me) is likely to vary from viewer to viewer, but this is not a story for cynics I would say.  In my view it’s a worthwhile ONA and deserves to be widely seen – no masterpiece, certainly, but displaying a lot of talent and straightforward emotion.