The series premieres on 2 July, 2026.
Ahead of its 2 July premiere, the upcoming historical fiction anime “The World is Dancing” has released its final trailer. It highlights the ending theme song ‘Na mo Nai Hana’ (Unnamed Flower)performed by hockrockb. Additional cast members have also been revealed.
The World is Dancing
Premiere date: 29 June, 2026
Animation studio: CygamesPictures
Streaming service: HIDIVE (USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand)
Who are the new cast members of The World is Dancing?
The newly announced cast members of the anime are:
- Kenichiro Matsuda as Yoriyuki Hosokawa
- Katsuhisa Houki as Elder
- Haruo Yamagishi as Samanosuke
- Soshiro Hori as Mantaro
- Kosuke Echigoya as Senri
- Kaito Udagawa as Toshigo
- Reiou Tsuchida as Hifumi
Previously announced cast members of the anime are:
- Yugiri Hanamori as Oniyasha
- Simba Tsuchiya as Ishiya
- Maaya Uchida as Kogane
- Romi Park as Masujiro
- Katsuyuki Konishi as Kanoami
- Haruki Ishiya as Junigorou
- Sakurai Takahiro as Ashikaga Yoshimitsu
- Hideta Nobuo as Nijo Yoshimasa
- Mamiko Noto as Goko
- Inori Minase as Chiharu
- Hatsuki Seto as Satsuki
- Yoji Matsuda as Inuo
- Miyuki Sawashiro as Shirabyoshi
Who are the staff members of The World is Dancing?
Toshimasa Kuroyanagi directs the anime at CygamesPictures, with Keigo Sasaki designing the characters. Sawako Kawamitsu handles series composition and script. Daisuke Shinoda is composing the music.
Other staff members are:
- Assistant director: Shuhei Fuchimoto
- Sub-character designer: Iori Hisatake
- Prop designer: Odashi
- Art directors: Hiromasa Ogura, Kazuhiro Inoue
- Art designer: Mamio Ogawa
- Noh movement: Reijirou Tsumura
- Noh supervisor: Kohei Kawaguchi
- Choreography: Kaiji Moriyama, Mikiko Kawamura
- Historical supervisor: Katsuyuki Shimizu
- Colour designer: Naoko Satou, Kumiko Naruke
- 3D director: Yoshinori Nakano
- Sound director: Yukio Nagasaki
What is The World is Dancing about?
The anime is based on a manga series written and illustrated by Kazuto Mihara. It was published in Kodansha’s Morning magazine from March 2021 to October 2022. The story is a fictional account of the life of Zaemi Motokiyo/Oniyasha, a pivotal figure in the Japanese Noh drama form’s development in the 14th century.
Kodansha publishes the manga in English and describes the story as:
Born into a life of acting and dance with a traveling theatre 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.