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Funimation to Simulcast Is This a Zombie? of the Dead, Jormungand Anime

FUNimation Entertainment announced at its Anime Boston panel on Saturday that it has acquired the simulcast rights for the Jormungand and Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? of the Dead (Is This a Zombie? of the Dead) television anime series. Both anime will stream on the Nico Nico website and on Funimation's website this spring. The company has also acquired additional home video rights for The Future Diary (Mirai Nikki) television anime series.

Keitaro Motonaga (Getbackers, Katanagatari, School Days) is directing the Jormungand anime at the Studio White FOX. Mobile Suit Gundam 00's Yousuke Kuroda is overseeing and writing the series scripts, and Gurren Lagann's Taku Iwasaki is composing the music. Kazuhisa Nakamura, an animation director on Katanagatari and Steins;Gate, is designing the characters.

Shizuka Itou (Hayate the Combat Butler's Hinagiku Katsura) stars as the female arms dealer Koko Hekmatyar. Mutsumi Tamura (Kill Me Baby's Sonya) plays Jonah, a former child soldier who joins Koko's mercenary unit. Rounding out the main cast are Sayaka Ōhara as the knife-wielding Valmet and Unshou Ishizuka as the mercenary leader Lehm. Mami Kawada and Nagi Yanagi are singing the opening and ending theme songs, respectively.

The first series will begin airing on April 10, and the second season will premiere in October to finish the entire 11-volume story from Keitarō Takahashi's manga. Funimation confirmed that it will simulcast both parts of the series.

Is This a Zombie? of the Dead is a sequel to the Is This a Zombie? television anime series, which originally aired in 2011. Is This a Zombie? of the Dead premiered in Japan on April 4. Crunchyroll streamed the first season into several countries as it aired in Japan, and Funimation also announced that it licensed the first season.

Funimation and Nico Nico are streaming the Future Diary 26-episode television anime series as it airs in Japan. The show began airing in Japan in October 2011.