You know, it’s been a good long while since we’ve had an anime dedicated to the intricate art of ballet dancing, so I’d say that Dance Dance Danseur is long overdue for its stage left entrance before the end of 2022.
MAPPA will produce the animation with Munehisa Sakai sitting in the director’s chair. Yoshimi Narita will handle series composition and Hitomi Hasegawa will adapt the characters for the anime. What’s really fun about this series, however, is that they are taking the ballet scenes seriously and have hired a ballet production staff member, Hajime Ootani, and a ballet animation director, Atsushi Ogasawara.
Daiki Yamashita (whom you might recognize from his work in My Hero Academia) will play the lead character, Junpei Murao.
Originally a manga created by George Asakura, the Dance Dance Danseur series made its debut in the seinen magazine Weekly Big Comic Spirits, in September 2015. As of December 2021, there are 22 volumes collected in Japan.
In the series, the story begins with a young Junpei sleeping during his sister’s ballet recital. It isn’t until a male dancer enters that the young man falls in love with the art form. Unfortunately, at some point in his life, he gives up on ballet and focuses on becoming more manly. What will happen when he meets another dancer who rekindles the love he once had for the dance?
Ballet is a very underrepresented art form in anime. There are definitely series where ballet is featured for a small moment, but it’s rare for it to be the central theme. I’m actually quite curious to see how this series will play out with a modern setting, and aimed at an adult male audience. While I’ve seen dance series aimed at the male demographic in the past (Welcome to the Ballroom), this is definitely the first time I’ve seen a ballet series skewing towards the male demographic.
Source: My Anime List
