A Tale of the Secret Saint sets a 3 October premiere

The TV anime adaptation of 十夜's light novel series, released in English as A Tale of the Secret Saint, has lined up a free pre-broadcast special on ABEMA. The programme airs on the ABEMA Anime Channel on 3 October from 21:00 to 22:00 JST, an hour before episode one, and stays free to watch until 31 December.

Who is on the special

Shion Wakayama, who voices Fia Ruud, is joined by Shinnosuke Tokudome as Zabiria and Daiki Hamano as Zachary Townsend. Neki Matsuzawa hosts. The official site promises a look at the appeal of the series immediately before the premiere, which in practice means cast talk and clips rather than new footage.

Episode two arrives a week early

The useful part for viewers is the streaming arrangement. From 22:00 JST on 3 October, ABEMA and Prime Video carry episode one alongside its terrestrial broadcast and then put episode two out a full week ahead of the TV schedule. Later episodes follow the same one-week gap, with other streaming services picking the series up after each terrestrial airing.

Terrestrial viewers get the series on TOKYO MX and BS11 at 22:00 JST on 3 October, with Sun TV following at 22:30 and AT-X joining from 5 October. Later relays are on TV Ehime and Niigata TV 21 from 8 October, Hokkaido Television Broadcasting from 13 October, and Nagasaki Broadcasting from 15 October.

What the series is

Fia Ruud is a knight-in-training who is told she has no talent for the sword, then recovers the memories and the powers of her previous life as a Great Saint, a status she immediately decides to keep to herself while she chases a place in the knight order. The adaptation is directed by Tomoe Makino at Felix Film, with Deko Akao on scripts, Satomi Kurita designing characters and Kenichiro Suehiro composing.

Our opinion

ABEMA's one-week head start is the quiet story here. Japanese streaming has spent years buying the rights to simulcast anime at the same moment as television, and putting episode two out seven days early is a real incentive rather than a marketing gesture, even if it only applies inside Japan. For everyone outside the country the announcement is a reminder of how regional the streaming map still is. The series itself looks like comfortable fantasy: a heroine with a secret to protect and a sword arm that needs to catch up with her past life, which is a dependable formula when the cast holds together.

A Tale of the Secret Saint premieres on 3 October on TOKYO MX and BS11, with the ABEMA pre-broadcast special from 21:00 JST.