Online television service Vuze has claimed an internet first after signing exclusive rights to a Japanese anime series.

It has exclusive global distribution rights to episodes of Neko Rahmen by producers Think Corporation. The series has not yet been licenced outside Japan.

Vuze works through the Azureus BitTorrent client, which shares files on a peer to peer basis.

The company said this was the first time any online video service had taken exclusive rights to Japanese anime.

It is putting all 13 episodes online for free with English subtitles and hopes to add French, German and Spanish versions early next year.