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Crunchyroll to Simulcast Gintama TV Anime's Return

The media-distribution site Crunchyroll announced on Monday that it would simulcast the return of the Gintama' television anime starting on April 4 at 2:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time (PST), 30 minutes after the series premieres in Japan. The simulcast will be available to paid subscribers in the Americas, Africa, Europe (except for Andorra, Italy, Vatican City, Portugal, Spain, and San Marino), Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East (except for Afghanistan and Iran). ANN has confirmed that the episodes will be available to free users in the same regions one week after they launch.

The Gintama' (with an added punctuation mark) series is a sequel to the 2006 television anime based on Hideaki Sorachi's manga of the same name, which aired its final episode in Japan on March 25, 2010. The series' director, Shinji Takamatsu, revealed this past December that the series would continue, and TV Tokyo announced its April resume date in February.

Crunchyroll simulcasted the original anime, which was licensed by Sentai Filmworks in early 2010. In April 2010, anime studio Sunrise released an anime film based on the franchise, which would earn 1.066 billion yen (approximately US$12.86 million) at the Japanese box office that year. The film's DVD release was bundled with a new animated work.

The comedy series is set in an alternative Edo era of Japan (1603-1868), in which aliens have taken over the government and banned humans from carrying swords in public. Protagonist and former samurai Sakata Gintoki runs a jack-of-all-trades business in an attempt to earn a living, but always seems to land the worst or strangest jobs.

Update: Added image, link to press release, and background information.

Update 2: Added story information.

Update 3: Added information for free users.

Update 4: Added more background information.