was a Japanese

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series written and illustrated by Yōko Tamotsu. The manga has inspired a novelization by Masumi Suzuki, and an

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series adaptation by

Liden Films is a Japanese animation studio and production enterprise headquartered in Kamiogi, Suginami, Tokyo, and has animation studios in Kyoto and Osaka. Establishment Liden Films was founded on February 22, 2012 and, shortly after, joined joint-holding ...

aired from April 7 to June 23, 2019. The anime series is licensed in North America under a

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Sony through a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex. The service primarily distributes films and tel ...

Funimation Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

partnership. The series follows Arata Miyako, a newly recruited staff member of the Shinjuku Ward Nocturnal Community Relations Division (NCRD) who possesses the "Ears of Sand", giving him the ability to understand the languages of supernatural creatures called the Anothers. His main role with the Shinjuku Ward NCRD is to maintain relations with the Anothers.

Characters

; : :Arata is the newly recruited staff member of the

Shinjuku is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative centre, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world (Shinjuku Station) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administration ...

Ward Nocturnal Community Relations Division (NCRD). He is a descendant of and resembles his ancestor

Abe no Seimei was an ''onmyōji'', a leading specialist of ''Onmyōdō'' during the middle of the Heian period in Japan.Miller, Laura. "Extreme Makeover for a Heian-era Wizard". ''Mechademia 3: Limits of the Human''. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Pres ...

. He possesses the "Ears of Sand", giving him the ability to understand the languages of the Anothers. ; : :Kyōichi is the shift leader of the Shinjuku Ward NCRD. ; : :Theo is a longtime staff member of the Shinjuku Ward NCRD. He is half-British and half-Japanese. He designs and creates a lot of the materials and tools used by Shinjuku Ward NCRD and other prefecture divisions. ; : :Senda is the head of the Shinjuku Ward NCRD. ; : :Satoru is a member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Nocturnal, Cultural and Environmental Department. He has a scar on his left eyebrow. He is a ruthless realist who despises Anothers and chooses to eliminate or neutralize them. ; / : :Huehuecóyotl (The Old Coyote) is an Aztec god of music and dance, but they are also a trickster god who created chaos. Their gender is unknown. They were renamed Kohaku (Amber) after a black fox by Abe no Seimei. ; : :Yuki is an Another in the form of a

nekomata ''Nekomata'' (original form: , later forms: , , ) are a kind of cat ''yōkai'' described in Japanese folklore, classical kaidan, essays, etc. There are two very different types: those that live in the mountains and domestic cats that have grown ...

, a feline creature with two tails. He takes the form of a white cat with blue eyes. He was tasked with guarding the storehouse at Miyako's family home by one of Arata's ancestors. He was a playmate of Arata when he was a child.

Media

Manga

Yōko Tamotsu launched the

Kadokawa Shoten , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing based in Tokyo, Japan. It became an internal division of Kadokawa Corporation on October 1, 2013. Kadokawa publishes manga, light novels, manga anthology magazines su ...

's ''shōjo'' manga magazine ''

Monthly Asuka , formerly , is a bimonthly Japanese manga magazine published by Kadokawa Shoten, aimed at teenage girls. The magazine was established in 1985. It is released on the 24th of every odd-numbered month as of May 2021. Much like its sibling public ...

'' on May 23, 2015 and ended it on February 22, 2022. The manga is also serialized online on Kadokawa's ''Comic Newtype'' magazine.

Novel

A novelization by Masumi Suzuki was published by Kadokawa under their Kadokawa Horror Bunko label on July 24, 2018 ().

Anime

television series adaptation was announced on June 21, 2018. The series is directed by Tetsuya Watanabe and written by Tatsuto Higuchi, with animation by studio

. Eriko Itō is designing the characters. The series aired from April 7 to June 23, 2019 on

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV, branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city. It competes with Nippon TV, TV Asahi, NH ...

SUN The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

, BS11, KBS, and

TVA The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina ...

Jun Fukuyama is a Japanese voice actor and singer. He played Lelouch Lamperouge in ''Code Geass'', Koro-sensei in '' Assassination Classroom'', Ichimatsu in ''Osomatsu-san'', Yuta Togashi in ''Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions'', Kraft Lawrence in ''Spice and ...

performed the series' opening theme song "dis-communicate", while Shunichi Toki performed the series' ending theme song "Yakusoku no Overture". A two-episode

OVA , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...

titled "Hitori Bocchi no Kyūketsuki" was bundled with the series'

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

release on September 25, 2019. An

original animation DVD , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...

was released on November 22, 2019, bundled with the 12th manga volume.

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{Liden Films 2019 anime television series debuts 2018 Japanese novels Anime series based on manga Crunchyroll anime Funimation Kadokawa Dwango franchises Kadokawa Shoten manga Liden Films Shōjo manga Urban fantasy anime and manga Tokyo MX original programming