AMC Global Media have announced its largest-ever content programming deal for the HIDIVE streaming service and an expansion of its partnership with Mainichi Broadcasting System, or MBS for short. The entire slate of MBS anime titles will simulcast exclusively on HIDIVE and will be available to subscribers in the U.S. and Canada, along with overseas markets like U.K., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
The partnership between HIDIVE and MBS will also see the simulcast of the TV anime adaptation of Umikaze Minamino’s Nia Liston: The Merciless Maiden light novel series. An exclusive North American premiere event for Nia Liston: The Merciless Maiden will be held at Anime NYC 2026 on August 21 at 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET in Room 1A15-18 of South Javits (Level 1), Javits Center. More titles will be announced at a later date.
Nia Liston: The Merciless Maiden anime will premiere on Tokyo MX on October 6 at 9:25 p.m. JST, followed by the BS NTV and MBS channels. An advance screening for the first three episodes will be held at esports TOKYO BAY studio on September 22.
Honoka Inoue will star as the protagonist Nia Liston.
The new cast members include:
- Fūka Izumi as Rinokis Funk
- Rina Honnizumi as Hildetora Altoir
- Rina Hidaka as Reliared Silver
Motoki Nakanishi directs the anime at KONAMI animation with Haruta Segi as assistant director. Gigaemon Ichikawa is in charge of series scripts, Yūki Itō and Kana Tosaoka are designing the characters. Naoki Endō is composing the music, and Hiromi Kikuta is directing the sound.
Additional cast members include:
- Color Design: Ryōta Katsuta, Maki Yamamoto
- Art Setting: Barnstorm Design Labo
- Art Director: Hiroshi Gōroku
- Background Art: Makaria
- Compositing Director of Photography: Takashi Ōde
- Editing: Masayuki Kurosawa
Umikaze Minamino first released the novels on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website in 2019, and ended its run there in 2021. Hobby Japan began publishing the novels illustrated by Jishaku in September 2022. Katana Canata started drawing the novels’ illustrations from the third volume in 2023.
J-Novel Club publishes the novels in English and describes it as follows:
A great hero lies undefeated on her deathbed, regretting that she never found a foe who could take her down. She never intended to meet her fate anywhere other than on the battlefield, and her peaceful demise has her wishing desperately that things could have been different… But when she suddenly comes to in the body of the young, frail Nia Liston, she’s got an all-new fight ahead of her.
Nia is a sickly child, meaning she has a long way to go before she’s in fighting form. Now that she’s been given a second shot at life, however, she’s determined to get what she wants. She’s going to live—and die—for battle this time! Make way for the Merciless Maiden!
, which includes the Nia Liston anime!){kind=link}