HIDIVE has announced that the anime adaptation of Kazuto Mihara’s The World Is Dancing manga will get an early premiere on June 29 for HIDIVE subscribers in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and other key overseas markets. HIDIVE will also host world premiere event for episode 2 of The World Is Dancing will be held at Anime Expo 2026 on July 2 from 6:45 p.m. to 7:35 p.m. PDT in Room 403AB of the Los Angeles Convention Center.
“We’re excited to present the highly-anticipated historical drama The World Is Dancing as part of HIDIVE’s Summer 2026 line-up of exclusive simulcasts series,” said HIDIVE president John Ledford in a press release. “Told through the 12-year-old eyes of real-life Noh co-founder Zeami, The World Is Dancing presents a fictionalized dramatization of the birth of Noh that combines stunning animation together with mesmerizing elements from this classical theatrical art. Audiences will be captivated from the very first frame as they are transported back 600 years and immersed into the medieval world of 14th century Japan. The World Is Dancing is not to be missed!”
The World Is Dancing premieres on July 2 at 10:00 p.m. JST on Tokyo MX and KBS Kyoto.
Macaroni Empitsu performs the opening theme song “shusho.” Oniyasha (VA: Yumiri Hanamori) and Zojiro (VA: Romi Park) will perform insert songs for the series.
The cast of the anime includes:
- Yumiri Hanamori as Oniyasha
- Simba Tsuchiya as Ishiya
- Maaya Uchida as Kogane
- Romi Park as Zojiro
- Katsuyuki Konishi as Kan’ami
- Haruki Ishiya as Junigoro
- Takahiro Sakurai as Ashikaga Yoshimitsu
- Nobuo Tobita as Nijo Yoshimoto
- Mamiko Noto as Nariko
- Inori Minase as Chiharu
- Hazuki Seto as Satsuki
- Youji Matsuda as Inuo
- Miyuki Sawashiro as Shirabyosh
Toshimasa Kuroyanagi directs the anime at Cygames Pictures. Keigo Sasaki is the character designer, and Satoshi Nemoto handles calligraphy and title lettering.
Additional staff members include:
- Series Script Supervisor/Scripts: Sawako Kawamitsu
- Assistant Director: Shūhei Fuchimoto
- Sub-Character Designer: Iori Hisatake
- Prop Design: Odashi
- Art Setting: Mamio Ogawa
- Art Directors: Hiromasa Ogura, Kazuhiro Inoue
- Color Key Artist: Naoko Satō, Kumiko Naruke
- 3D Supervisor: Yoshinori Nakano
- Compositing Director of Photography: Yūtarō Kikuchi
- Editing: Daisuke Hiraki
- Sound Director: Yukio Nagasaki
- Music: Daisuke Shinoda
- Noh Choreography: Tsumura Reijiro
- Choreography: Kaiji Moriyama, Mikiko Kawamura
- Noh Supervision: Kohei Kawaguchi
- History Supervision: Katsuyuki Shimizu
- Animation Producer: Mizoguchi Kan (Tadashi Mizoguchi)
Lastly, Shochiku describes the anime series as follows, via the official website:
One does not need dance to live.
In 1374, during the turbulent age when the Northern and Southern Courts were locked in conflict, the Northern Court’s shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, was becoming an increasingly dominant force.
Born the son of Kan’ami, head of the Kanze troupe of sarugaku performers, Oniyasha drifts through his days with a hazy question lodged in his heart: Why do people dance? His spirit remains clouded, until the day he encounters a dance that is truly “good.”
Curious, sensitive, and strikingly beautiful, the boy meets people, laughs, cries, confronts his own weaknesses, and slowly begins to shape a new form of dance for a world steeped in impermanence.
