Manga 'World Is Dancing' Gets TV Anime for Summer 2026

by nirererin
Jan 21, 2:43 AM | 9 Comments

Production company Shochiku opened an official website for a television anime adaptation of Kazuto Mihara's World Is Dancing manga on Wednesday, revealing the lead cast, main staff, a teaser visual (pictured right), promotional video, and commemorative illustration (pictured above) drawn by Mihara. The anime is scheduled to premiere in Summer 2026.

Voice actress Yumiri Hanamori (Jigokuraku) is starring in the anime as Oniyasha (Zeami Motokiyo).

Staff
Director: Toshimasa Kuroyanagi (Fune wo Amu)
Character Design: Keigo Sasaki (Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray)
Calligraphy, Title Lettering: Satoshi Nemoto
Studio: CygamesPictures

Mihara began serializing historical manga in Morning magazine in March 2021. Kodansha published the sixth and the final volume in November 2022.

Kodansha USA licensed the manga in English and published all six volumes digitally from August 2023 to August 2024.

Introduction
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 Kanami, 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. (Source: Shochiku)

PV

Official site: https://sh-anime.shochiku.co.jp/worldisdancing-anime/
Official X: @wid_anime

Source: Comic Natalie

World Is Dancing on MAL

9 Comments Recent Comments

This is great! Traditional japanese theatre art is rarely explored, and among those we have in anime so far are mostly about rakugo. Cant wait to see this one

Jan 22, 3:02 AM by Boazanian

There are some seriously neat sequences in the PV already... I might have to check this out.

It's incredible how quickly CygamesPictures has built up a group of talented people. Obligatory Apocalypse Hotel mention, alongside the more usual Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu and Cinderella Gray ones.

Keigo Sasaki, the character designer, worked on CinGray, which makes me wonder if this is the CinGray production line's next project. If so, that all but confirms that the rumored Kagurabachi adaptation will be made by the same team that made the Uma Musume movies – arguably CygamesPictures' best. Epic stuff.

Jan 22, 2:09 AM by detarameMAL

Quality wise looks good, but not big fan of traditional dances, I prefer the dance of Idols anime.

Jan 21, 8:18 AM by Lordponczek

art looks so good thou, and as the title says 'the world is dancing'. Gonna hope and will take a promising interest on it as the announcement did.

Jan 21, 6:50 AM by _izumikane

@iThink Reminding me of Inu-O in any capacity is high praise frankly.

Jan 21, 5:12 AM by JizzyHitler

Looks great, looking forward to it. Pretty fitting for the Bakuten director to do a show about dancing. Also a finished manga makes me hopefull for a full adaptation

Jan 21, 5:09 AM by HidingHere

@iThink I got Inu-Ou vibes too. If this is anything like that, and animated by my beloved CygamesPictures, then it’ll be quite the unexpected unique treat this summer!

Jan 21, 4:33 AM by Tabbs919

Oh this looks FIRE. 👀👀👀

Jan 21, 3:32 AM by AriaTheCat

Holy peak animation in the PV, CygamesPictures is going all out. Maybe this is why there was a somewhat drop in quality in 2nd cour of Cinderella Grey.
Manga seems to be completed with 60 chapters so we can probably expect a full adaptation. Looking forward to it in Summer.

Jan 21, 2:50 AM by Temperanced