A lot of times, sports anime tends to focus on the guys. Hot-blooded sports like baseball and soccer have incredibly engaging sports anime in the respective forms of Kuroko no Basketball and Haikyu! that only ever feature dudes galore on the field and in the fray. Girls typically stay on the sidelines as moral support in these series. Sports-oriented shows that focus on the ladies have been on the rise in recent years, though. Even more exciting is the fact that these shows are starting to crack the code on what makes female sports anime so exciting — big, muscular bodies. Plenty of anime feature gorgeously thin and frail young beauties, but women who play sports have dense muscles and impressive anatomies. An upcoming baseball anime titled Tamayomi isn’t afraid to focus on that, rendering every character in the all-girls sports series with muscular, mouth-watering legs.
Tamayomi focuses on young pitcher Yomi Takeda. Her junior high baseball club always failed to deliver because it simply didn’t have a single member who could ever catch Yomi’s “miracle ball” pitches. She eventually quit baseball, and made it to junior high graduation with her sports dreams shattered. When she enrolls in Shin Koshigaya High School, though, Yomi reunites with her childhood friend Tamaki Yamazaki. Yomi soon realized that Tamaki never gave up on baseball, and ended up developing enough skill to be able to catch those miracle balls that Yomi throws. With her passion refueled and Tamaki by her side, Yomi decides to pursue her baseball dreams once more.
Tamayomi is set to premiere in April on AT-X, ABC TV, Metele (Nagoya TV), Tokyo MX, and Kyushu Asahi Broadcasting. Streaming options and overseas localization plans have yet to be confirmed for the show, unfortunately.
The ending theme song of the series is titled “Plus Minus Zero no Hōsoku” (Plus Minus Zero Rule) and will actually be performed by the voice actresses in the show who portray the members of the Shin Koshigaya High School Women’s Baseball Club that the anime focuses on. The opening theme, meanwhile, is titled “Never Let You Go” and will be performed by singer-songwriter Naho.
As for the rest of the staff, Tamayomi is being animated at Studio A-Cat, who previously worked on Frame Arms Girl and Pastel Life. Toshinori Fukushima, the director of Major and Beyblade the Movie: Fierce Battle, will be directing this anime. Touko Machida, known for working on Wake Up, Girls! and Harukana Receive, will be in charge of series composition. Koichi Kikuta will be the character designer, having also done work on Fruits Basket and KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! Masahiko Matsuo of Sword Art Online II fame is in charge of prop design, with Eiji Iwase from No Game, No Life and Ace Attorney serving as art director. Tsukasa Ohira is also in charge of art design, and also has previous credits on No Game, No Life and Ace Attorney. Chiho Nakamura, who previously worked on Saga of Tanya the Evil, will be handling color design. CG direction is being handled by Yuichi Goto, who was also a staff member on City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes. Jun Kubota from Fairy Tail is the director of photography, Kazuhiro Nii is the editor, and Hiroto Morishita from High School Fleet will be the sound director.
The cast of the series includes:
- Ruriko Noguchi as Nozomi Takamura
- Rina Hon’izumi as Shiragiku Ōmura
- Satomi Amano as Tamaki Yamazaki
- Kaori Maeda as Yomi Takeda
- Nao Shiraki as Yoshino Kawaguchi
- Miyu Tomita as Ibuki Yamaguchi
- Haruka Yoshimura as Kyōka Fujii
- Airi Eino as Risa Fujiwara
- Yume Miyamoto as Rei Okada
- Rina Kitagawa as Ryō Kawasaki
- Marie Hashimoto as Sumire Fujita
