VIZ Media Lands Rumiko Takahashi’s MAO, Sets April 4 Premiere on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ in Select International Markets

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Friday, April 3 – Leading global manga and anime company VIZ Media has secured exclusive rights to the anime adaptation of MAO, the supernatural manga from legendary creator Rumiko Takahashi (Inuyasha, Ranma ½, Urusei Yatsura), which will debut 02:15PM PDT Saturday, April 4 on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and Latin America.

Produced by SUNRISE Studio, the series follows Nanoka, a modern-day girl who slips through a portal into Japan’s Taisho era, where the enigmatic exorcist Mao reluctantly rescues her from a grotesque yokai attack—an encounter that leaves her with mysterious new abilities when she returns to the present.

Under VIZ Media’s rights agreement, the company will distribute the series across TV, home video, electronic sell-through, video-on-demand throughout North America, Latin America, and Australia/New Zealand.

"As a global leader offering premium anime titles to fans around the world, we’re excited to add MAO to our ever-growing lineup on Hulu and Disney+,” said Lauren Tempest, General Manager, Hulu, and Executive Vice President, DTC Content Partnerships. “This new series from Rumiko Takahashi, the legendary creator behind Inuyasha, is a fantastic addition for our subscribers, introducing her distinctive storytelling to a new generation of fans.”

Official Synopsis:

Mao, a young mystic who lives in the Taisho period of early 1900s Japan, is a mysterious onmyoji who, after suffering a life-altering curse, has continued to live for nine hundred long years. His world becomes even stranger when he meets Nanoka Kiba, a junior high schooler who seems to have traveled from the future. When Nanoka was young, she was involved in an accident with her parents, and she was the only one who survived.

But when Nanoka decides to return to that fateful shopping arcade where the accident happened, she is transported to another time and place—a world where supernatural ayakashi thrive in an era long before her own.

There she meets Mao, whose abrupt and bizarre question prompts Nanoka to see herself and her curious life in a completely new light.

Now the two travelers from different worlds unite as they take on the dark powers that grip both their lives.

Rumiko Takahashi’s latest work, MAO, finally comes to life as an anime!

A dark fantasy time-traveling mystery begins now.

Where a curse devours time itself…

Main Staff:

• Director: Teruo Sato
• Series Composition: Yuko Kakihara
• Character Design & Chief Animation Director: Yoshihito Hishinuma
• Art Directors: Hiroshi Kato & Izumi Hoki
• Color Design: Masumi Otsuka
• CG Director: Tomohiro Fujie
• Director of Photography: Akane Fushihara
• Editor: Kazuhiro Nii
• Sound Director: Hiromi Kikuta
• Music: Shu Kanematsu
• Animation Production: SUNRISE Inc.
• Production: MAO Production Committee

Main Cast:

• Mao: Yuki Kaji
• Nanoka Kiba: Natsumi Kawaida
• Hyakka: Hiro Shimono
• Kamon: Toshiyuki Toyonaga
• Otoya: Momoka Terasawa
• Shiranui: Kazuyuki Okitsu
• Funa Uozumi: Motoko Kumai
• Tenko: Yoko Hikasa
• Sana: Risa Shimizu
• Yurako: Reina Ueda
• Byoki: Takashi Matsuyama

About VIZ Media:

Wherever manga and anime fans are, we are! VIZ Media is No. 1 in Japanese pop culture, introducing fans to what’s now, new, and next. Home to the world’s most influential and groundbreaking storytellers and artists, who today drive multiple industries from publishing and animation to film and gaming. If it’s big in Japan, you can find it at VIZ.

VIZ Media is proudly certified as a Most Loved Workplace® in America and Inc Magazine’s Best Workplace. For more information on VIZ Media visit: https://www.viz.com/

Contact:

Chantelle Sturt
Head of Global PR & Publicity
chantellesturt@viz.com

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