To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the TV anime series as well as the release of the animated movie of “Natsume’s Book of Friends” – a manga series originally written and illustrated by Yuki Midorikawa and currently still serialising via the Monthly Lala magazine from publisher Hakusensha – the series’ production committee has teamed up with Tokyo Metro subway to launch an exciting crossword rally campaign across four  participating stations of the Tozai Line.

© Yuki Midorikawa / Hakusensha / Natsume Yuujinchou Project © Tokyo Metro Co., Ltd

According to the Animate Times, the rally campaign will take place from 1 to 30 September 2018 and anyone interested are welcomed to participate at no additional fee – yes, free-of-charge! All they have to do is to pick up the rally-sheet (i.e. official participation form) from any of the subway stations on the Tozai line, complete the crossword puzzle quiz on the sheet within the same day, and return the completed rally-sheet (together with their names and contact details) to any of the stations’ passenger service counters, and they are done! There will be keyword panels with clues and hints available at four particular subway stations on the Tozai Line that will serve as the help that participants require to complete the crossword puzzle. All they have to do is take the train and shuffle/travel amongst these four stations – train-ride fares would be at their own expenses (and that is why there is no additional participation fee charged).

To make things even easier for directionally-challenged participants, the rally’s organisers have very kindly provided specified locations where participants may look for the keyword panels to aide in their crossword puzzle completion – since it is a pretty well-known fact that Japanese train and subway stations can sometimes be a labyrinth and the organisers probably understand how disorientating and frustrating it will be to get lost in a station, so to not put a damper to any of the rally participants’ moods, a little bit of very specified locational help is always welcomed. The panel locations and stations are listed as follows:

  1. T-10 Nihonbashi Station – at the gantry area where the Tozai Line intersect with the Ginza Line (near Exit B6)
  2. T-03 Takadanobaba Station – at the gantry area where the Tozai Line subway crosses over to the Seibu-Shinjuku JR Line (near Exits 4 & 5)
  3. T-12 Monzen-Nakacho Station – near Exit 4 towards the direction of Monzen-Nakacho intersectional crossing
  4. T-18 Urayasu Station – near the sales area for regular/seasonal Tokyo Metro boarding passes/tickets

So there! Simply head to the above four stations, follow the clues listed on the instructional panels and anyone can easily complete their crossword puzzle and clear the rally campaign! Once completed, participants must remember to fill in their particulars and contact details before submitting the rally-sheet back to redeem for a specially-designed original rally-completion prize.

On top of this all rally participants also automatically qualify to enter for a separate balloting grand lucky-draw for a chance to win a series of special bonus prizes – there will be a total of 222 of these bonus prizes to be won! They are:

5-tickets-set for animated movie “Natsume’s Book of Friends – Utsusemi ni Musubu –” (10 winners)

© Yuki Midorikawa / Hakusensha / Natsume Yuujinchou Project

“Yuki Midorikawa Prize” – Replica artwork manuscript by the original manga-creator (two winners)

© Yuki Midorikawa / Hakusensha / Natsume Yuujinchou Project

“Takashi Natsume Prize” – sponsored by Super Groupies: original-design wristwatch (five winners)

© Yuki Midorikawa / Hakusensha / Natsume Yuujinchou Project © 2013-2018 SuperGroupies

“Nyanko-sensei Prize” – sponsored by Super Groupies: original-design Nyanko-sensei bag (five winners)

© Yuki Midorikawa / Hakusensha / Natsume Yuujinchou Project © 2013-2018 SuperGroupies

“Natsume’s Followers Club Prize” – Tozai Line collaboration original-design pass-case with chain (200 winners)

© Yuki Midorikawa / Hakusensha / Natsume Yuujinchou Project © Tokyo Metro Co., Ltd

Rally campaign participants will be handed a balloting ticket/entry form when they turn-in the completed crossword rally-sheet. They need to indicate which of the bonus special prizes they are aiming to win on the ticket, fill in their names and contact details, then mail the completed ballot ticket/form back to the organisers (postal fees are incurred at their own expenses). All ballot entries have to be returned no later than 3 October 2018 – with the exception of participants seeking to win the movie tickets-set: these have to reach the organisers by 17 September 2018. Interested parties may contact the Tokyo Metro Customer Service Division should they require more details on how to participate in the upcoming rally campaign.