Noh Manga The World is Dancing Gets TV Anime Adaptation for Summer 2026, PV Revealed with CygamesPictures Producing and Yumiri Hanamori Starring

The Noh themed manga The World is Dancing has been confirmed for a television anime adaptation, scheduled to air in summer 2026.

TV Anime Adaptation Announced for Summer 2026

The manga The World is Dancing will be adapted into a TV anime airing in summer 2026. Animation production will be handled by CygamesPictures, known for Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray and The Summer Hikaru Died. The series will be directed by Toshimasa Kuroyanagi, who has previously directed The Great Passage, Backflip!!, and Love Me, Love Me Not. The lead role of Onyaksha will be voiced by Yumiri Hanamori.

The story is a Noh inspired narrative that begins with the protagonist Onyaksha and his vague question: why do people dance. Set in an age of constant conflict, the curious and beautiful young boy Onyaksha meets others, laughs, cries, and confronts his own weakness while shaping a new form of dance for an impermanent world. It is a dancing story that may have existed when Zeami, who would later create Noh, was once called Onyaksha. A story that continues across 600 years.

The newly released PV showcases the beauty of the work alongside the harshness of an era when death was far closer to everyday life, as well as the moment when Onyaksha encounters a shocking dance. Characters including Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, who also appears in the original manga, are shown, with additional cast information for other characters to be announced at a later date.

Director: Toshimasa Kuroyanagi

This is the story of a boy named Onyaksha who continues to challenge creation during a time when Noh, now considered a classical performing art, was called Sarugaku and represented cutting edge entertainment.

He does not possess exceptional talent beyond others, nor does he hold any medals he can boast of. Even so, he continues to devote himself to Sarugaku each day with the hope that by becoming someone of consequence, he too might be able to change the world.

Something about that figure feels connected to the beginner spirit within all of us, and with that in mind, the entire staff is working hard to create an anime that audiences can truly enjoy once again.

Just as the flower that Onyaksha reached has continued for 600 years, I want to carefully and wholeheartedly create this work so that it can become a story loved for a long time.

Starring Cast: Yumiri Hanamori

I believe that in this world, there are as many things that people feel are good as there are people themselves.

There is not a single shared standard, and because of that, if you are able to encounter something in this world that you personally feel is good, then surely it will become a flower that colors and illuminates the path that person walks through life. I cannot help but wish for that.

In a world where prosperity and decline come and go like waves that ebb and flow, what shape did the flower he made bloom take, and what color was it. And why does it continue to bloom even now on the paths of so many people.

Beyond this work, I sincerely hope it reaches you.

Character Design: Keigo Sasaki

When I read the original work, I thought, ah, this is something I would absolutely regret not participating in. It is a work packed with that much appeal.

How far can we express it through animation, and what does expression even mean in the first place. While being deeply influenced by the passion Onyaksha has toward his art, I spend each day taking on this challenge together with the other creators.

I will do my best to deliver something truly good.

Title Calligraphy: Satoshi Nemoto

Zeami, the great master of Noh, wrote down Fūshikaden, the oldest treatise on Noh and performance theory in Japan, which describes human movement and the movement of the heart, using the metaphor of a flower to discuss form and appearance.

In his later years, Zeami also authored a work titled Kakyō, and for him, the concept of the flower held special significance.

When I was asked to create the title calligraphy for The World is Dancing in katakana script, I considered how best to express it, and ultimately felt that writing with the theme of flower was the right approach.

Katakana originated as symbols used to read classical Chinese texts in Japanese, and can be said to move between the world of letters and the world beyond letters. For that reason, I freed myself from literal character forms and took up the brush in an attempt to shape Zeami’s flower through calligraphy.

I would be honored if I were able to add even a small flower to this anime.

PV

Source : ORICON NEWS