The official website for the upcoming original TV anime AYAKA, from the mind of GoRA (K) and King Records, announced tonight that voice actor Takahiro Sakurai, who was set to voice Haruaki Kurama, will be replaced “due to various circumstances.” A new actor will be named in the future.

This comes after Sakurai, who is best known as the voice of Reigen in Mob Psycho 100, was reported to have been engaged in a 10-year extramarital affair with a writer from his radio show by Weekly Bunshun in October. Sakurai’s agency confirmed the report and apologized for the behavior of the voice actor, who ended the radio show the day after the report was released.

RELATED: Original TV Anime AYAKA Reveals Theme Songs, First Character Trailer

AYAKA is being directed by Nobuyoshi Nagayama (Happy Sugar Life) at Studio Blanc based on an original story by GoRA and original character designs by redjuice (Guilty Crown), with animation character designs by Misaki Kaneko (Smile Down the Runway), sound direction by Ryo Tanaka (Tribe Nine) and music by Kana Shibue (Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju). Naoya Tanaka serves as the production designer.

Crunchyroll will be streaming AYAKA as it airs in Japan sometime in 2023, describing the original TV anime series as such:

The story follows Yukito Yanagi, an orphan who one day encounters an eccentric disciple of his father’s. The strange man takes him to his birthplace on Ayakajima, made up of seven islands where mysterious beings called “Mitama” and dragons are rumored to reside. There, Yukito meets his father’s two other disciples, who protect the harmony of Ayakajima… which soon threatens to collapse.

Source: AYAKA on Twitter

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Daryl Harding is a Senior Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.