The North American anime licensing company Maiden Japan announced on Wednesday that it has licensed the Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 television anime series. Maiden Japan will release the series in conjunction with the home video distribution company Section23 Films. The companies will release the series on bilingual DVD and Blu-ray Disc and in digital formats on April 2.

The 11-episode series originally aired on Fuji TV's late-night Noitamina programming block in 2009. The story centers on Mirai (Satomi Hanamura), a middle school freshman girl who goes to Tokyo's artificial Odaiba Island for a robot exhibition with her brother Yuuki (Yumiko Kobayashi) at the start of summer vacation. A powerful tremor emanates from an ocean trench, the famed Tokyo Tower and Rainbow Bridge crumble and fall, and the landscape of Tokyo changes in an instant. With the help of a motorcycle delivery woman named Mari (Yuko Kaida) who they meet on Odaiba, Mirai and Yuuki strive to head back to their Setagaya home in western Tokyo.

Masaki Tachibana (The Legend of Heroes: Trails in The Sky, .hack//Quantum) directed the series at studios BONES and Kinema Citrus. Natsuko Takahashi (Moyashimon, Kaasan - Mom's Life) handled the series composition, Atsuko Nozaki (The Legend of Heroes: Trails in The Sky) handled the character design. Kô Ôtani (Haibane Renmei, Shakugan no Shana) was in charge of the music.

Update: Background information, longer plot summary added.

Image © Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 Production Committee