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Funimation Adds .hack//Quantum, Streams Guilty Crown

The North American anime distributor Funimation announced at its Anime Weekend Atlanta on Saturday that it licensed the .hack//Quantum video anime series and will stream this fall's Guilty Crown television anime series as it airs in Japan. Funimation will release .hack//Quantum on DVD and Blu-ray Disc next year. Guilty Crown premieres in Japan on October 13, and Funimation will release the anime on DVD and Blu-ray Disc next year.

The three-volume .hack//Quantum anime is set in The World R:X setting of last year's .hack//Link game for the Sony PSP. In the story, the player characters Tobias, Mary, and Sakuya form a party in The World R:X for adventure but encounter a mysterious entity named Hermit. The encounter draws them into the all-consuming darkness taking over The World R:X.

Masaki Tachibana (Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, Eiyū Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki The Animation) directed the anime at Kinema Citrus, and Tatsuya Hamazaki (.hack//Legend of the Twilight, .hack//G.U.+, .hack//Roots) wrote the scripts. Bandai Visual released the series earlier this year from January to April. (The final volume was published Megane Kikuya's manga of .hack//Link in North America.

Guilty Crown is set in Japan in 2039, 10 years after the "Apocalypse Virus" devastated the land in an incident known as "Lost Christmas." A multinational orgnization known as GHQ brings the lawless country under control, but at the price of Japan's sovereignty. One day, an unsociable 17-year-old second-year high school student named Shū Ouma encounters Inori Yuzuriha, a female singer who is part of the resistance to liberate Japan. Together with Gai Tsutsugami (Shū's 17-year-old rival who is a young "Jiikundō" pilot in the resistance), Shū and Inori fight with mysterious innate abilities known as "imperial powers."

Tetsuro Araki (Death Note, High School of the Dead) is directing Guilty Crown at Production I.G. The series script supervisor is Hiroyuki Yoshino (Macross Frontier, My-HiME), while redjuice, the artist best known as the illustrator of the music group supercell, is working on the original character designs. The group supercell's leader ryo himself is composing the opening theme song, and Hiroyuki Sawano is composing the soundtrack.

In addition to the same-day streams, Funimation will present the first two episodes of the anime at New York Anime Festival on October 15 and again on October 16; the second episode will not air in Japan until October 20.

Funimation also announced that it will launch an "elite subcription" service this October for US$7.95 a month. The service will offer high-definition (HD) anime, including uncut and exclusive titles, with no commercials. The subscripton will feature English dubs on release date (before non-subscribers will see them online), as well as exclusive forums and contests. The service will have a catalog of 200 titles with 5,500 videos, including 1,500 in HD.

Images © .hack Conglomerate
© Quantum Project
© Guilty Crown Committee

Update: More information added.