Sports anime have become increasingly more popular recently, this can be partial accredited to the extreme global popularity of Yuri On Ice. In the same strain as Yuri is the award winning manga, and soon to be anime Welcome To The Ballroom. While not on ice, this series will feature lovable characters, beautiful animation, and of course ballroom dancing. The official website for the upcoming series revealed a new visual for the upcoming film today, and it looks awesome.
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The new image shows off the main characters from the series, Tatara Fujita, Shizuku Hananoka, Kiyoharu Hyodo, and Kaname Sengoku in their ballroom apparel. The website also revealed new images of the character designs from the show (seen below) as well as the main cast:
- Shimba Tsuchiya will be playing Tatara Fujita
- Ayane Sakura will be playing Shizuku Hanaoka
- Nobuhiko Okamoto will be playing Kiyoharu Hyodo
- Toshiyuki Morikawa will be playing Kaname Sengoku
Welcome To The Ballroom began back in 2011 in the Monthly Shonen Magazine, and its eighth compiled volume in was published on October 2015. Once Welcome to the Ballroom hits televisions, it will join a long line of all-star sports anime series like Haikyu!! and Chihayafuru. In the past few years, the subgenre has seen a resurgence thanks to abroad streaming sites like Crunchyroll and Funimation, so fans are excited to see a new franchise come into play. After seeing the fluid brand of animation style brought to life in Yuri on Ice, Welcome to the Ballroom is sure to please fans with its complex choreography and quirky characters.
The manga’s third volume will be published in North America in January, and from Kodansha Comics describes the story of the series as follows:
Reckless high school student Tatara Fujita wants to be good at something – anything. Unfortunately, he’s about as average as a slouchy teen can be. The local bullies know this, and make it a habit to hit him up for cash, but all that changes when the debonair Kaname Sengoku sends them packing. Sengoku’s not the neighborhood watch, though. He’s a professional ballroom dancer. And once Tatara Fujita gets pulled into the world of the ballroom, his life will never be the same.
Welcome To The Ballroom is set to premier in July of this year. Click start slideshow below to check out the new character designs:
Shimba Tsuchiya as Tatara Fujita
Ayane Sakura as Shizuku Hanaoka
Nobuhiko Okamoto as Kiyoharu Hyodo
Toshiyuki Morikawa as Kaname Sengoku
