News
Crunchyroll Original Meiji Gekken: 1874 to Premiere in Japan on January 14
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The BS Shochiku Tokyu channel revealed in a video on Friday that the original television anime series Meiji Gekken: 1874 will premiere on the channel on January 14 at 11:00 p.m. JST.
The anime is one of the seven Crunchyroll Originals that Crunchyroll announced in February 2020. Crunchyroll is listed as a producer on the series.
Tsukasa Sakurai and Naoki Tozuka are credited with the original draft. Jin Tamamura (The Girl in Twilight, I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince) is directing the series at Tsumugi Akita Anime Lab, and Tozuka is overseeing the series scripts. Shigeru Nishigori (animation director for Alice & Zoroku) and Masayori Komine (Angolmois: Record of Mongol Invasion) are designing the characters and Shūji Katayama (Overlord franchise, Saga of Tanya the Evil) is composing the music.
The anime stars (character name romanizations are not confirmed):
- Yūichi Nakamura as Shizuma Origasa
- Satoshi Mikami as Kyōshirō Shuragami
- Tomoyo Kurosawa as Sumie Kanomata / Hinazuru
- Lynn as Senri Kuroki
- Kazuhiro Yamaji as Buhei Hiramatsu
- Katsuhisa Houki as Ryūzō Moriya
As the title indicates, the series takes place in 1874. It's been seven years since the start of the Meiji Era, and the Japanese government is pushing its policies to catch up with the might of the Western nations. Former Aizu retainer Shizuma Origasa has thrown away his sword and gotten rid of his topknot, is now a rickshaw driver in Tokyo, but his swordsmanship skills from the Boshin War are still alive and well. He is looking for his wife, Sumie Kanomata, who went missing during the Boshin War. Shizuma is recruited into the police force after he ends up thwarting the assassination attempt of a government official.
At the same time, Kyōshirō Shuragami is a talented one-eyed swordsman who is a member of the Moriya-gumi yakuza gang that is embroiled in a turf war in Tokyo. The Moriya-gumi are working with wealthy merchants in the trafficking of opium, and the profits are being paid a mastermind plotting to overthrow the government to return Japan to a place for samurai.
The destinies of Shizuma and Kyōshirō, who have opposing points of view, are fated to cross. And a sad and ironic encounter and farewell await Shizuma.
Source: BS Shochiku Tokyu's website via MyAnimeList
