Rumiko Takahashi’s ‘Mao’ Decorates Hulu, Disney+ Premiere
Viz Media has acquired North American and select international streaming rights to the anime adaptation of Rumiko Takahashi’s “Mao,” with the series launching April 4 on Hulu in the U.S. and on Disney+ in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Latin America.
The series will premiere the same day on NHK General TV in Japan, where Hulu Japan will also stream the series starting April 5. The show is scheduled for a continuous two-course run with no mid-season break.
The anime adaptation, produced by Sunrise and announced last July by Bandai Namco Filmworks, comes as part of publisher Shogakukan’s broader centennial celebration. Takahashi launched “Mao” in Shogakukan’s Weekly Shōnen Sunday in May 2019, and the manga has reached 27 compiled volumes as of February 2026. Viz Media, which has held the English-language North American manga license since 2021, began releasing simultaneous English chapters alongside the Japanese publication in May 2023.
A dark supernatural fantasy spanning two eras, “Mao” follows Nanoka Kiba, a high school student who is thrown back to Japan’s Taisho period after revisiting the shopping arcade where she survived a mysterious childhood accident eight years earlier. There she meets Mao, a brooding onmyoji mystic who has spent nine centuries under a life-altering curse, and whose probing questions force Nanoka to see her own strange existence in a whole new light. The two form an uneasy alliance as they battle the dark forces intertwined with their fate.
Takahashi is one of the most decorated and commercially dominant manga characters, with ‘Urusei Yatsura’, ‘Ranma ½’, ‘Maison Ikkoku’ and ‘Inuyasha’ among her signature works. She has won the Shogakukan Manga Award twice – for ‘Urusei Yatsura’ in 1981 and for ‘Inuyasha’ in 2002 – and has been nominated for the Eisner Award Hall of Fame. Much of her canon has been adapted into anime, live-action series and film, and her oeuvre has become known collectively as the ‘Rumic World’.
Teruo Sato, who previously directed Season 1 of “Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon,” directs the new series, with series composition by Yuko Kakihara and character design and lead animation direction by Yoshihito Hishinuma, another veteran of “Yashahime” and “Inuyasha.” Other major credits include art direction by Hiroshi Kato and Izumi Hoki, color design by Masumi Otsuka, CG direction by Tomohiro Fujie, photography direction by Akane Fushihara, editing by Kazuhiro Nii, sound direction by Hiromi Kikuta, and music by Shu Kanematsu. The series is a production of the Mao Production Committee.
Boy band Kis-My-Ft2 performs the opening theme ‘Heartloud’, while True performs the ending theme ‘Juai’ (Cursed Love).
Yuki Kaji voices the title character Mao, with Natsumi Kawaida as Nanoka Kiba. The supporting cast includes Hiro Shimono as Hyakka, Toshiyuki Toyonaga as Kamon, Momoka Terasawa as Otoya, Kazuyuki Okitsu as Shiranui, Motoko Kumai as Funa Uozumi, Yoko Hikasa as Tenko, Risa Shimizu as Sana, Reina Ueda as Yurako and Takashi Matsuyama as Byoki.
Viz Media’s rights include TV, home video, electronic resale and video-on-demand in North America, Latin America and Australia/New Zealand.
