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Funimation, bilibili Partner to Stream Chinese Animated Series Heaven Official's Blessing

Funimation announced on Thursday that it is partnering with Chinese streaming platform bilibili to stream Heaven Official's Blessing as Funimation's first streaming Chinese animated series beginning on Friday. The series will be available initially in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. The series will also be available this winter in Mexico and Brazil. Funimation plans to release an English dub in 2021.

The release will be simultaneous with bilibili's streaming of the series in China. bilibili and Haoliners Animation League are co-producing the 11-episode series based on fantasy novels Mo Xiang Tong Xiu first published online in 2017.

bilibili began streaming a trailer for the series on July 18.

Funimation describes the series:

Heaven Official's Blessing tells the story of former Crown Prince Xie Lian, who, after 800 years of “Cultivation,” a practice to attain eternal life, supernatural powers, and incredible levels of strength, finally ascends to heaven. However, he is soon banished back to the mortal realm due to an unfortunate string of incidents. He then runs into San Lang, the Ghost King, who later becomes Xie's loyal follower. An extraordinary adventure stars as they learn the truth about the gods in heaven.

Sony Corporation of America announced in April that it would pay about US$400 million to buy 17.3 million shares of bilibili. The purchased shares account for 4.98% of the Chinese company's stock. The companies are collaborating on projects in the Chinese entertainment market, including animation and mobile games, after signing their business contract.

Sony subsidiary Funimation and bilibili announced a partnership in March 2019 to acquire anime licenses. The partnership involves the companies jointly acquiring licenses and includes IP rights for broadcast television, video-on-demand, electronic sell-through, home entertainment, gaming, and merchandise in the United States and China.

Update: Trailer embedded. Thanks, Vs7.

Source: Press release