Multimedia projects seem to be a dime a dozen in Japan these days. It isn’t just enough to launch an anime or video game and let it naturally expand into a franchise of multiple types of products out of fan interest and sales reactions. Nowadays, the new wave is to plan and launch a series as a collection of multiple types of media from the get-go. Companies carefully craft a series with malleable potential, and then launch it with plans from day one as an anime, a video game, a manga, a stage-play, and a line of perfumes and deodorants. The latest example of this new business strategy is Futsal Boys!!!!!, a multi-media franchise that combines an anime and mobile game with real-life futsal matches that affect the outcome of the story.
Did I mean to type football? No, no, I am, in fact, talking about a sport named futsal. I wouldn’t condemn you for not knowing about it — I certainly didn’t realize it was a thing until I came across this collection of smiling anime dudes in soccer-adjacent uniforms. Futsal is, in essence, a variant of the more widely known sport of football/soccer. The differences between the two sports, though, make futsal matches much smaller and slightly more intimate than a football game. For starters, futsal matches happen in smaller indoor courts on a hard surface. The game is played with a low-bounce ball that is smaller and harder than a regular football ball, and each team consists of just five players. The result is a much more intense, small-scale competition that seems perfect for an adaptation into the world of anime and video games like Futsal Boys!!!!!
The cast of Momomi Academy High School’s futsal team, the most recent full team to be introduced for the Futsal Boys!!!!! project, consists of the following voice actors:
- Kazuki Ura as Kyōsuke Aiba
- Keita Tada as Rio Hanamura
- Takao Sakuma as Nozomi Kōmori
- Mizuki Chiba as Natsuki Sogō
- Minato Kamimura as Yukimaru Kurama
The rest of the previously revealed cast for the multimedia series is as follows:
- Ryota Takara as Haru Yamato
- Shuto Ishimori as Seiichiro Sakaki
- Kohei Yoshiwara as Toi Tsukioka
- Ryotaro Yamaguchi as Tsubaki Yukinaga
- Kazuki Furuta as Ryu Nagumo
- Yasunao Sakai as Taiga Amakado
- Hiromu Mineta as Louis Kashiragi
- Yuya Arai as Shin Yuki
- Satoru Murakami as Takumi Kuga
- Junpei Baba as Kaito Kazanin
- Naoya Miyase as Sei Kyogoku
- Tomoya Yamamoto as Tomoe Futaba
Naturally, these young men will be voicing their respective Futsal Boys!!!!! characters in the upcoming anime series, as well as the planned smartphone game app that will bring the futsal action to iOS and Android. The voice actors for this series will be flexing more than just their vocal cords, though; the third part of this multimedia project is a series of ongoing, real-life futsal matches between the actual cast members. Naturally, cast members will be playing matches on their respective character’s teams, although whether the idea is for them to remain in-character during these exhibitions or for them to be presented as their natural selves isn’t yet clear. Regardless, what is clear is the surprising way these futsal matches will tie into the rest of the franchise. The story of the anime and the mobile game will actually be changed and affected based on the outcomes of these real-life matches.
In the world of Futsal Boys!!!!!, futsal has been the most popular sport worldwide for over a decade. Haru Yamato, the protagonist of the series, is inspired to become a futsal player himself after he witnesses the stunning performance of a Japanese player named Tokinari Tennoji at the U-18 World Cup. He joins the Koyo Academy High School’s futsal team with the goal of becoming a player like Tennoji, and runs into various new friends and rivals during his time there.
Mao Marita is credited as the original creator of the Futsal Boys!!!!! project. The franchise features different character designers for each of the schools featured in the story. Koyo Academy students are designed by Mizuki Kawashita, while Adalbert Academy players are designed by Utaki Yukihiro. The character designer for Momomi High is Tanaka Marumero, also known as Ogeretsu Tanaka, while the character designer for Okazan Academy is Lily Hoshino. Tomomi Ishikawa, character designer of Persona 5 the Animation, will be adapting these character designs for animation on the anime series. Shoji Yonemura, a scriptwriter who previously worked on series like Fairy Tail, Pokemon, and Digimon Fusion, will be handling “story construction” for the anime. Finally, music composer R.O.N, who previously worked on FLCL Alternative and FLCL Progressive, will be composing music for the series.
