A teaser trailer for historical Noh-themed anime The World is Dancing has been released.
The new preview sees young protagonist Oniyasha, a real figure known later in life as Zenmi, grappling with the idea of dance, as well as the challenges of being the son of Kanze troupe leader Kan’ami. More of the series’ visuals and animation is put on display as well.
Accompanying the teaser’s release was the confirmation of a July broadcast start window (it was already known that The World is Dancing would be a Summer 2026 anime season title) and the reveals of more cast and crew. The new cast names are Simba Tsuchiya as Ishiya, Maaya Uchida as Kogane, Romi Park as Zojiro, Katsuyuki Konishi as Kan’ami, and Haruki Ishiya as Junigoro.
Meanwhile, the new staff reveals include:
• Series composer and scriptwriter: Sawako Kawamitsu (Tonari no Stella live-action movie scriptwriter)
• Assistant director: Shohei Fuchimoto
• Sub-character designer: Iori Hisatake
• Background art director: Hiromasa Ogura (Backflip!! The Movie)
• Background art director: Kazuhiro Inoue (Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf)
• Color designer: Naoko Sato
• Color designer: Kumiko Naruke (ChaO)
• Compositing director: Yutaro Kikuchi (Sasaki and Peeps)
• Sound director: Yukio Nagasaki (Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War)
• Music composer: Daisuke Shinoda (Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Season 2 co-composer)
• Nohgaku supervisor: Kohei Kawaguchi
• Choreographer: Kaiji Moriyama
• Choreographer: Mimiko Kawamura
• Historical supervisor: Katsuyuki Shimizu
• Animation producer: Kan Mizoguchi (Umamusume: Pretty Derby Road to the Top, Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Beginning of a New Era)
The World is Dancing is based on the manga by Kazuto Mihara. The source material began serialization in Kodansha’s seinen magazine Morning in March 2021 and released its sixth and final volume in November 2022. Kodansha USA describes the manga’s synopsis as such:
Born into a life of acting and dance with a traveling theater troupe in 14th-century Japan, 12-year old Oniyasha has one problem-he doesn’t know what the point of any of it is. Why must I step with the left foot here instead of the right? Why is one performance good and another, bad? Why do people dance at all? It all seems perfectly arbitrary, until a chance encounter in a run-down shack sets him down a path to revolutionizing the art form and influencing much of Japanese culture to come.
A fictionalized account of the early life of Zeami Motokiyo (Oniyasha), the founder of modern Noh theater-the world’s oldest surviving theater art-this coming-of-age artist’s journey vividly brings to life a man far ahead of his time during one of Japan’s most culturally and socially vibrant eras.
Staff
• Director: Toshimasa Kuroyanagi (Backflip!!, The Great Passage)
• Character designer: Keigo Sasaki (Umamusume: Cinderella Gray co-character designer, The Millionaire Detective Balance: Unlimited)
• Animation production: CygamesPictures
Cast
• Yumiri Hanamori as Oniyasha
