'Gurazeni' Premiere Date, Latest News: Baseball Anime Series to Premiere on SKY Perfect TV! in April
A new promotional video has been released for the upcoming Japanese sports anime series "Gurazeni."
The video, which is currently region-locked to Japan, has reportedly revealed additional voice cast members and previewed the series' theme song titled "Merigo feat. SKY-HI," which was performed by Cypress Ueno To Robert Yoshino.
The additional cast members are M.A.O., who will be providing the voice of Yuki; Issei Futamata, who will be voicing Tanabe; and Kenji Nomura, who will be taking on the role of Sakota. Other cast members include Ryuuzou Ishino as Kozato, Daisuke Namikawa as Tokunaga, Takanori Hoshino as Shibuya, and freelance announcer Hideo Matsumoto as Announcer Matsumoto.
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It has previously been announced that Fukushi Ochiai will be providing the voice of the series protagonist, Natsunosuke Bonda.
Yuuji Moritaka wrote the source manga that was illustrated by Keiji Adachi. It debuted on Kodansha's "Weekly Morning" magazine in 2010 and ended its run in 2015. It also ranked number two on the "Kono Manga ga Sugoi!" guidebook's 2012 list, was nominated in the 5th Manga Taisho Awards in the same year, and won the best general manga award in the 37th Kodansha Manga Awards held in 2013.
The series has been published in 17 collected volumes, and it was immediately followed by its sequel, "Gurazeni: Tokyo Dome-hen," which is currently ongoing. It is described as a baseball money survival story and centers on a baseball team in a highly stratified society, wherein a player's annual salary is mainly determined by his performance. In this society, an eight-year relief pitcher with a rather uncommon left-handed side-arm throw continues to fight through the team's strict system.
Japanese animation studio Studio DEEN will be animating the series under the direction of Ayumu Watanabe. Hideo Takayashiki will be supervising and writing the series scripts, while Kenichi Ohnuki takes care of the character designs.
"Gurazeni" will premiere sometime in April in Japan on the SKY Perfect TV! On Demand site. Additional information will be available on the series' official site at a later date.
