Voice actor Nobunaga Shimazaki has been cast as the young adult version of Oniyasha in the ongoing The World Is Dancing TV anime series. The anime began airing in Japan on July 2, 2026 and is streaming on HIDIVE in select countries and territories.
An accompanying character visual of the older Oniyasha has also been unveiled.
Shimazaki, who recently voiced Claude Sirius in The Classroom of a Black Cat and a Witch, can be heard in the preview trailer for the anime’s 11th episode below.
He joins a voice cast that include:
- • Yumiri Hanamori as Oniyasha (young)
- • Simba Tsuchiya as Ishiya
- • Maaya Uchida as Kogane
- • Romi Park as Zojiro
- • Katsuyuki Konishi as Kan’ami
- • Haruki Ishiya as Junigoro
Toshimasa Kuroyanagi (Backflip!!, The Great Passage) is directing the anime series, with Keigo Sasaki (Umamusume: Cinderella Gray co-character designer, The Millionaire Detective Balance: Unlimited) as character designer, Sawako Kawamitsu (Tonari no Stella live-action movie scriptwriter) as series composer and scriptwriter, Shuhei Fuchimoto as assistant director, and Daisuke Shinoda (Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Season 2 co-composer) as music composer. CyPic is in charge of the animation production.
Other staff include Iori Hisatake as sub-character designer, Hiromasa Ogura (Backflip!! The Movie) and Kazuhiro Inoue (Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf) as background art directors, Naoko Sato and Kumiko Naruke (ChaO) as color designers, Yutaro Kikuchi (Sasaki and Peeps) as composting director, Yukio Nagasaki (Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War) as sound director, Daisuke Shinoda (Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Season 2 co-composer) as music composer, Kohei Kawaguchi as Nohgaku supervisor, Kaiji Moriyama and Mimiko Kawamura as choreographers, Katsuyuki Shimizu as historical supervisor, and Kan Mizoguchi (Umamusume: Pretty Derby Road to the Top, Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Beginning of a New Era) as animation producer.
The historical manga series by Kazuto Mihara was serialized in Kodansha’s Morning seinen magazine from March 25, 2021 to October 27, 2022. A total of six tankobon volumes in Japan. Kodansha USA licensed the manga series for English release.
The synopsis of The World Is Dancing is described by Shochiku as:
In 1374, amid the turmoil of the Northern and Southern Courts’ long running conflict, a boy named Oniyasha is born into a family of sarugaku theater performers. He spends his days in a kind of quiet gloom, haunted by a simple but persistent question: Why do people dance? Then, one day, he witnesses a dance that he feels to be “good”—and everything begins to change. This is the story of the beautiful young boy who would one day shape the art of Noh and be remembered as Zeami.
Source: Press release
