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Crunchyroll to Simulcast Steins;Gate TV Anime

The media distribution site Crunchyroll announced on its forums on Thursday that it will simulcast the television anime adaptation of 5pb.'s Steins;Gate adventure game. The series is set to launch on the streaming site on Tuesday, April 5 at 11:35 a.m. Pacific Standard Time (PST) in the following regions: North America, South America, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Netherlands, Middle East, Africa. Premium users can access episodes the day of their simulcast; free users gain access one week later.

Chiyomaru Shikura, the head of The 5pb. game production company, announced the anime adaptation this past July. Steins;Gate is the second "scientific adventure game" from 5pb. and Nitroplus, who also created Chaos;HEAd. The artist huke (Black Rock Shooter) designed the characters. The suspense story takes place in a realistic version of Tokyo's Akihabara otaku shopping district. The game originally shipped for the Xbox 360 console in October 2009, and a Windows port shipped this past August. Yomi Sarachi launched the main manga adaptation in the November 2009 issue of Media Factory's Monthly Comic Alive magazine, and Kenji Mizuta launched the Steins;Gate: Bōkan no Rebellion spinoff in the February 2010 issue of Mag Garden's Monthly Comic Blade magazine.

This past March, the anime's official website confirmed that the series' ninth and final Blu-ray Disc/DVD volume of the anime will include an animated special. The first two volumes and the last volume will each have two regular episodes, and the other volumes will have three episodes; the total number of listed episodes is 24 regular episodes plus the special.

Update: Added background information and image.

Update 2: Added more background information.

Update 3: Added free/premium user information via Crunchyroll's press release.