Crunchyroll has grabbed another piece of the Funimation puzzle with the addition of the Ai Yori Aoshi series and its sequel season Enishi. The two seasons are now streaming in their original Japanese language form with English subtitles while the dubbed version remains on Funimation’s site. Due to this originally being a Geneon Entertainment release and an older one with rights parceled out elsewhere over the years, it’s only available to viewers in the US And Canada.
Originally airing in the spring 2002 season for the first season, it was directed by Masami Shimoda based on the series composition by Masaharu Amiya. Yumi Nakayami is serving as the chief animation director while Kazunori Iwakura handled the character designs and it was animated by JC Staff. The Japanese cast includes Ayako Kawasumi as Aoi Sakuraba, Souichiro Hoshi as Kaoru Hanabishi, Akiko Hiramatsu as Miyabi Kagurazaki, Halko Momoi as Chika Minazuki, Kaori Mizuhashi as Taeko Minazuki, Satsuki Yukino as Tina Foster and Sayaka Narita as Mayu Miyuki.
The original work comes from Kou Fumizuki and was serialized in Young Animal for seventeen volumes between 1999 and 2005. It was released in North America through TOKYOPOP.
The series was released in North America originally by Geneon Entertainment, who dubbed it, and was released afterward by Funimation.
Plot concept: Kaoru Hanabishi, a college student who lives alone, met a beautiful but bewildered girl dressed in a kimono at a train station. He volunteered to guide her way to the address she was looking for, which happened to be in his neighborhood, but turned out to be an empty lot. Not knowing what to do next, Kaoru invited the devastated girl to his apartment and asked for any additional clues to her destination. She supplied him with a photo of two children whom Kauru immediately identified as himself and Aoi Sakuraba, his childhood friend. It turned out that the girl in front of him is Aoi Sakuraba herself, his betrothed fiancee who came all the way to Tokyo to marry him. Her revelation was not only surprising but also reminded the deepest part of Kaoru’s memory for why he left the Hanabishi family in the first place.