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Funimation to Stream Maria the Virgin Witch TV Anime

Funimation Entertainment announced on Wednesday that it will stream the anime of Masayuki Ishikawa's Maria the Virgin Witch (Junketsu no Maria - Sorcière de gré, pucelle de force) manga series.

Funimation will stream the series starting on January 11 at 9:30 a.m. EST.

Funimation describes the story:

IIn the time of the Hundred Years' War, a young and powerful witch known as Maria leads a reclusive existence. Shunned by the church – but beloved by certain locals – Maria endeavors to use her magic to bring an end to the warfare she so despises. She assists people of all walks of life with the help of her two familiars: a succubus and an incubus with great powers of seduction. Though she seeks only peace, the archangel Michael despises her use of magic to interfere in human affairs and decrees that should she ever manage to lose her virginity, Maria's powers will vanish! To ensure that Maria no longer mingles magic with humans, Michael sends the angel Ezekiel to keep a watchful eye on the virgin witch.

The cast includes (from top left to bottom right in the images below):

• Hisako Kanemoto as Maria, a witch who lives in the forest
• Yōko Hikasa as Artemis, Maria's succubus
• Mikako Komatsu as Priapos, Maria's incubus
• Kana Hanazawa as Ezekiel, an angel dispatched by Michael to watch Maria
• Kensho Ono as Joseph, a young French man who often visits the forest where Maria lives

• Yuuki Ono as Garfa, a soldier in the French army
• Bin Shimada as Guillaume, Garfa's lord
• Kenta Miyake as Yvain, the leader of Garfa's unit
• Sachiko Kojima as Lolotte, one of the prostitutes for the soldiers
• Takahiro Sakurai as Bernard, the head of the town's monastery
• Natsuki Hanae as Gilbert, a novice monk under Bernard
• Mamiko Noto as Viv, a witch who came from Winchester in southern England
• Ai Kakuma as Anne, a girl who visits Maria with her mother
• Miyuki Ichijou as Martha, Anne's grandmother

• Kikuko Inoue as Michael (not pictured)

Goro Taniguchi (Code Geass, Fantasista Doll, S-CRY-ed) is directing the anime at Production I.G, off scripts written and supervised by Hideyuki Kurata (Read or Die, Oreimo, The World God Only Knows). Yuriko Chiba (Planetes, Sacred Seven, To Heart) is designing the characters with concept visual designs by Eiji Nakada (Code Geass, Eureka Seven, Sacred Seven). ZAQ (Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!, Rail Wars, Trinity Seven) is performing the opening theme song "Philosophy of Dear World," and True (Buddy Complex, pictured below) is performing the ending theme song, "ailes."

Seiichi Shirato (Jormungand, Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, Mobile Suit Gundam AGE) is serving as chief researcher. Narumi Sakai is serving as the color key artist with Hiroshi Tanaka as the director of photography. Yasuhiro Mikami is directing the 3D, and Seiji Morita is editing. Masato Kōda (Arpeggio of Blue Steel, Magical Warfare) is scoring the music at Lantis. Jin Aketagawa is the sound producer.

Ishikawa launched the manga in the inaugural issue of Kodansha's good! Afternoon magazine in 2008, and the manga ended its run in this magazine in 2013. Ishikawa is also serialized a Junketsu no Maria Exhibition (Maria the Virgin Witch Exhibition) spinoff from July until December. Kodansha Comics announced at Anime Expo in July that it will start publishing the manga in North America in early 2015.