The North American anime distributor Funimation has announced that it has licensed House of Five Leaves (Sarai-ya Goyou) and The Tatami Galaxy (Yojō-Han Shinwa Taikei) from Fuji TV. It will simulcast these anime and others from Fuji TV's late-night Noitamina block with English subtitles — within an hour of the Japanese broadcast — starting this Thursday. The simulcast of House of Five Leaves launches on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. CDT (Friday morning in Japan). The simulcast of The Tatami Galaxy will launch next Thursday at 11:45 a.m. CDT.

The story of House of Five Leaves follows the lives of the House of Five Leaves gang members in Edo-era Japan during the height of the shōgun's rule. In particular, the masterless samurai (rōnin) Akitsu Masanosuke becomes the bodyguard of the gang's charismatic leader Yaichi. Tomomi Mochizuki (Ocean Waves, Ranma ½) is directing the 12-episode anime series at Manglobe (Samurai Champloo). Viz Media is publishing the first manga volume in North America this month.

Tomihiko Morimi's original Yojō-Han Shinwa Taikei novel centers around a nameless protagonist who is a third-year college student. The protagonist looks back at the earlier years of his college life and his adventures with a particular circle (club). Masaaki Yuasa (Kaiba, Mind Game, Kemonozume) is directing the 11-episode project for the anime studio MADHOUSE, while Makoto Ueda (Summer Time Machine Blues, Fujiko F. Fujio's Parallel Space) is writing and supervising the series' scripts. Update: The first episode of House of Five Leaves is now streaming on Funimation's website,