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Sentai Filmworks Licenses Real Girl Anime (Update)

Sentai Filmworks announced on Tuesday that it has licensed the television anime based on Mao Nanami's Real Girl (3D Kanojo) manga for streaming and home video. The series will stream as a simulcast in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Nordics, Spain, Portugal, and Central and South America.

HIDIVE confirmed on Tuesday that it will stream the series beginning on April 3 at 3:59 p.m.

The anime will premiere in Japan on April 3 at 1:29 a.m. (effectively April 4 morning) on NTV's AnichU programming block, and is listed with 12 episodes.

Takashi Naoya (Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru) is directing the anime at Hoods Entertainment (If Her Flag Breaks, Drifters, Märchen Mädchen). Deko Akao (Flying Witch, Noragami, After the Rain) is in charge of series composition. Satomi Kurita (Hina Logic - from Luck & Logic) is designing the characters.

Three-member group Quruli (RIN-NE first season) will perform the show's theme song "Daiji na Koto" (Important Thing).

The josei manga follows Hikari "Tsuttsun" Tsutsui, a high school boy who is satisfied with the virtual girls he encounters in anime and games. He does not have many friends and he lives in his own world. One day, when he is stuck on pool cleaning duty, he is approached by Iroha, a "real girl" who is showy and popular with boys.

The romantic comedy manga ran in Kodansha's Dessert magazine from July 2011 to May 2016, and Kodansha published the series in 12 compiled volumes. The manga has 1.2 million copies in print. Kodansha Comics is releasing the manga digitally in English.

Warner Bros. Japan announced last July that it will also release a live-action film adaptation of the manga. Ayami Nakajō and Hayato Sano are starring as Iroha and Hikari, respectively. The film will open on September 14, with Tsutomu Hanabusa directing.

Update: HIDIVE stream added.