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Crunchyroll Streams Arata: The Legend TV Anime
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Media distribution service Crunchyroll announced on Monday that it will stream the television anime adaptation of Yuu Watase's Arata The Legend (Arata Kangatari) manga. The website will stream the series on Mondays starting today at 2:00 p.m. EDT for premium members only in the United States and Canada.
Kenji Yasuda (Shugo Chara!, Croisée in a Foreign Labyrinth - The Animation) and Woo Hyun Park (assistant director for Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Movie) are directing the series at studio Satelight and JM Animation. Kô Ôtani (Haibane Renmei, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Shakugan no Shana) is handling the music, and Sphere is performing the opening theme song.
Watase launched the manga in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine in 2008 and it is still running in the magazine. Viz Media publishes the manga in North America, and it describes the story:
In a mythical world where humans and gods co-exist, Arata has the unfortunate honor of being the successor to the matriarchal Hime Clan. This means he has to pretend to be a girl or face death if his true gender is discovered! On the day of his inauguration, an assassination plot forces him to flee - and he somehow winds up in modern-day Japan! Meanwhile, a boy named Arata Hinohara gets sucked into the first Arata's world and finds himself dealing with people after his life!
The show stars Nobuhiko Okamoto as Hinohara Arata, Ryōhei Kimura as Masato Kadowaki, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Arata, Yūki Ono as Kannagi, Ayahi Takagaki as Kotoha, and Tatsuhisa Suzuki as Akachi. The show premiered in Japan on Monday.
Update: Background information added.
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