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Sentai Filmworks Announces New Partnership With MBS, Licenses The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior Anime

AMC Networks announced on Thursday a new partnership and distribution agreement between its subsidiary Sentai Filmworks and Japan's Mainichi Broadcasting System (MBS). The deal will provide exclusive rights for HIDIVE to stream part of MBS' future programming in all global markets outside of Asia. Sentai and MBS also revealed that HIDIVE will stream the television anime of Tenichi and Suzunosuke's The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior (Higeki no Genkyō to naru Saikyō Gedō Last Boss Joō wa Min no tame ni Tsukushimasu.) light novel series.

The companies will announce more titles in the future.

AMC Networks acquired Sentai Holdings, LLC, which includes Sentai Filmworks and the HIDIVE streaming service, in January 2022. The acquisition includes all of the member interests from Cool Japan Fund, Inc., a public-private Japanese investment fund.

Sentai Filmworks is a global supplier of anime and official merchandise. The company's brands include the HIDIVE streaming service, SentaiFilmworks.com, Anime Network cable video-on-demand, and Sentai Studios. Sentai Filmworks has licensed numerous anime, including Made in Abyss, Akame ga Kill, Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma, and Parasyte -the maxim-.

The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior anime will premiere in July 2023.

Norio Nitta (Kami-sama Minarai: Himitsu no Cocotama) is directing the anime at OLM Team Yoshioka. Deko Akao (Pokémon Journeys, Noragami) is in charge of series composition. Hitomi Kōno is designing the characters. Hanae Nakamura, Tatsuhiko Saiki, Kanade Sakuma, and Junko Nakajima are composing the music.

Seven Seas Entertainment is releasing both the original light novels and the manga adaptation in English, and it describes the story:

Pride Royal Ivy is only eight years old when she realizes that she's been reincarnated, destined to become the future wicked queen and final boss of an otome game. She's got it all in this new life: razor-sharp wit, boss-tier powers, and influence over the kingdom as crown princess. Determined to sow despair and destruction across the land, she... Wait, what kind of a rotten future is that?! Princess Pride decides to drop the maniacal villainess plan and protect the male love interests instead, cheating her way to saving everyone she can! Will this final boss end up earning the adoration of her kingdom?

Tenichi began serializing the original story in the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website in April 2018, where it is still ongoing. Ichijinsha began publishing the story in print editions with illustrations by Suzunosuke, beginning with the first volume in June 2019. The publisher released the sixth volume on November 2. Seven Seas published the second volume in May 2022.

Matsuura launched the manga adaptation of the novels in the Zero-Sum Online website in March 2020. The manga was canceled due to Matsuura's poor health. Ichijinsha plans to continue the manga with a new serialization in some form, but has no concrete plans yet. Ichijinsha published the manga's third volume in January 2022. Seven Seas published the third volume on February 14.

Source: Press release