Over the last few years, studio MAPPA has reinvigorated itself with a small string of hit original anime titles including 2016’s Yuri!!! On Ice and 2018’s Zombie Land Saga. According to an announcement that hit the Internet on Thursday, August 13th, MAPPA is going to attempt to strike again with another original anime project titled Taiso Samurai. The new original anime will feature men’s gymnastics as its central theme and will air starting on October 11th, 2020.
2020 年 10 月10 日（土）放送開始のTVアニメ「体操ザムライ」の解禁PVが公開されました！
ぜひご覧ください！https://t.co/wulmqlbO9h公式サイトはこちらhttps://t.co/8vVVw827Ye#体操ザムライ pic.twitter.com/HXvtbXAwQI
— TVアニメ「体操ザムライ」公式 (@taiso_samurai) August 13, 2020
According to the lead actor, Kensho Ono (who is playing the role of Leonardo), the Taiso Samurai story is described as:
The story is set in the year 2002 in the once powerful Japanese men’s gymnastics team. Shōtarō Aragaki, the former Japanese team member who devoted his life to gymnastics, is no longer able to compete to his expectations. Despite still training strenuously day after day, he is advised to retire by his coach Amakusa. However, a certain encounter alters Aragaki’s fate.
The rest of the primary cast reads as follows (character names first):
Shōtarō Aragakia: Daisuke Namikawa
Tetsuo Minamino: Yuuki Kaji
Noriyuki Amakusa: Kenyuu Horiuchi
Rei Aragaki: Rina Honnizumi
Along with the primary cast, we can also report that the series director will be Hisatoshi Shimizu, working off scripts written and supervised by Shigeru Murakoshi. The character designs will be provided by Kasumi Fukagawa. It’s worth noting that all three of these individuals also worked on Zombie Land Saga.
Studio MAPPA has already proven that they know how to do the beautiful, fluid animation that they will need in order to make this series look good. It’s interesting that it will be the Zombie Land Saga team working on this title rather than the Yuri!!! On Ice team, which already has me wondering about what the tone of this new series will be once it premieres in the fall. Regardless, consider me hooked in for this one!
Source: Comic Natalie, translated synopsis and promotional video via Anime News Network [1], [2]
