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Crunchyroll to Stream P.A. Works' Sakura Quest Original Anime

Crunchyroll announced on Tuesday that it will stream P.A. Works' new original television anime Sakura Quest. The stream will debut on Wednesday at 12:00 p.m. EDT in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.

Funimation will also stream the series with an English dub beginning on May 4.

The anime premiered in Japan at 12:00 a.m. at night on Tuesday, April 4 (effectively Wednesday morning) on Amazon Prime Japan, and future episodes will stream at 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday nights. The series will premiere at 12:00 a.m. at night on Wednesday, April 5 (effectively Thursday morning) on Tokyo MX and AT-X, and also air on ABC, BS11, and Tulip TV. It will also stream on Niconico Anime Channel.

Anime studio P.A. Works announced the anime in December. The studio describes the anime as the third in P.A. Works' "working" series about people and their jobs, after Hana-Saku Iroha and Shirobako.

The story centers on five girls who work in the tourism bureau of their small rural town. The town revives its "micro-nation" tourism program, which originated from a nationwide movement during Japan's bubble economy period, and hires the five girls as "monarchs" (tourism ambassadors). The anime depicts one year in their jobs in the tourism industry, and show how they change and grow.

During the bubble economy in Japan, a micro-nation fad arose, where regions in Japan declared themselves "micro-nations" to revive tourism and industry in their region, starting with the "Shin Yamatai Koku" nation in 1977. The micro-nations coordinated with local governments and tourism bureaus, and some even had their own chambers of commerce. At its height, there were over 200 such micro-nations in Japan.

"Alexandre S. D. Celibidache" is credited for the original work. Sōichi Masui (Chaika the Coffin Princess, Crayon Shin-chan: Arashi o Yobu Ōgon no Spy Daisakusen) is directing the anime, and Masahiro Yokotani (Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club, The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Re:Zero) is supervising the series' scripts. BUNBUN (Yuki Yuna Is a Hero, Izetta: The Last Witch) is designing the characters, and Kanami Sekiguchi (Hana-Saku Iroha, Shirobako, Charlotte) is adapting those designs for animation.

(K)NoW_NAME performs the opening theme song "Morning Glory" and produce the anime's music. (K)NoW_NAME is a new project founded by Toho Animation Records. The project provided opening, ending, and inserts songs, as well as back ground music, for the Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash television anime that premiered in January 2016.