Orient Anime Episode 11 Preempted Due to Earthquake, Tsunami Warnings in Japan

The 11th episode of the television anime of Shinobu Ohtaka's Orient manga has been preempted on the TV Tokyo channel due to an earthquake and resulting tsunami warnings on Wednesday. There has not been any indication as to when the episode will air.

Update: The anime's official Twitter account confirmed the preempted episode, and the staff will reveal details on future broadcasts at a later time.

An earthquake of magnitude 7.3 occurred off the coast of Fukushima prefecture in northern Japan on Wednesday at 11:36 p.m. (10:36 a.m. EDT). Fukushima and Miyagi (the prefectures closest to the earthquake's epicenter) issued a one-meter (about three-foot) tsunami warning.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which covers Tokyo and surrounding prefectures, is currently verifying if there are no new irregularities at the Fukushima nuclear power plants. However, TEPCO reported about 2.1 million customers have lost power in Tokyo and eight surrounding prefectures. At least 154,000 customers lost power in northern Japan.

The Tokyo MX channel has aired the In the Land of Leadale, Love of Kill, and Tokyo 24th Ward anime as scheduled on Wednesday night, but the channel overlaid tsunami warnings and earthquake bulletins on its programming.

A powerful magnitude-9.1 earthquake struck off the coast of northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011 at 2:46 p.m., and a series of aftershocks followed. Tsunami waves hit Miyagi and other northeastern prefectures, and over 15,000 lives were lost in the overall disaster.

The Orient anime premiered in Japan on January 5. Crunchyroll is streaming the anime, and is also streaming an English dub.

Update: Tokyo MX is also airing the Police in a Pod anime as scheduled.

Update 2: Added more information about preempted episode and future broadcasts. Source: Orient anime's Twitter account

Update 3: Crunchyroll briefly streamed Orient episode 11 despite the episode not airing in Japan. The service then stopped streaming the episode less than two hours later and posted, "Due to the earthquake earlier today in Japan, episode 11 of ORIENT is not available at this time. We thank you for your patience and understanding."

Sources: TV Tokyo, Tokyo MX broadcast