Funimation Streams Requiem of the Rose King Anime

Funimation announced on Thursday that it will stream the television anime of Aya Kanno's Requiem of the Rose King (Bara-Ō no Sōretsu) manga.

The anime will premiere on Tokyo MX, Sun TV, and KBS Kyoto on January 9, and on BS11 on January 11. (Tokyo MX will air it first at 10:30 p.m. in Japan.)

The anime will air for two consecutive cours (quarters of a year), for a half-year continuous run. The anime was previously slated to premiere this fall, but the production committee announced a delay in July.

The manga's dark fantasy story adapts Shakespeare's Richard III. Viz Media licensed the manga, and it describes the story:

Richard's father, the patriarch of the House of York, is poised to become king of medieval England during the bloody Wars of the Roses. But just as success is imminent, he is abruptly cut down. Plunged into despair, Richard acts out in revenge and must face a powerful and beautiful new enemy.

The anime stars:

• Mitsuki Saiga as Richard
• Hikaru Midorikawa as Henry
• Sho Hayami as Richard, Duke of York
• Kousuke Toriumi as Edward
• Yasuaki Takumi as George, Duke of Clarence
• Satoshi Mikami as the Earl of Warwick
• Satoshi Hino as William Catesby
• Sayaka Ohara as Queen Margaret
• Kōhei Amasaki as Edward of Westminster
• Sayumi Suzushiro as Lady Anne Neville
• Ayumi Mano as Lady Isabel Neville
• Shizuka Itou as Queen Elizabeth
• Aya Hisakawa as Cecily Neville
• Houchu Ohtsuka as Narrator
• Riho Sugiyama as Henry Stafford
• Aoi Yūki as Joan of Arc

Kentarō Suzuki (Angels of Death, Kud Wafter) is directing the anime at J.C. Staff, and Hiroki Uchida (Days of Urashimasakatasen, Gamers!, Merc Storia: The Apathetic Boy and the Girl in a Bottle) is supervising and writing the series scripts. Chikara Hashizume is designing the characters. Additional staff members include Kentaro Izumi (A Certain Scientific Railgun T) as the art director, Mayumi Tanahashi as the color designer, Akihiro Takahashi as director of photography, Yoshikazu Iwanami as the audio director, Kou Otani as the music composer, and Lantis as the music producer.

Voice actor Makoto Furukawa will perform the opening theme song "Ware, Bara ni Insu." Arika Takarano from Ali Project is writing the song. ZAQ will perform the ending theme song "Akumu."

Source: Funimation (Liam Dempsey)