That owner is Sengoku Kaname ( Morikawa Toshiyuki) who seems to co-own the place with Tamaki-san ( Noto Mamiko). One day he spots a beautiful girl from his grade walking into an underground dance studio, and one thing (a run-in with bullies) leaders to another (the owner putting Tatara into a headlock and dragging him downstairs). The hero in this case is Fujita Tatara ( Tsuchiya Shimba), a third-year middle schooler adrift without anything he feels passionate about. Ballroom e Youkoso is intense, flashy, goofy and wholly adolescent in a positive way.
#Ballroom e youkoso kissmanga series
But for me the connection runs deeper than that – the personality and mood of the series (in the case of the volleyball show I felt it was “a floppy-eared beagle driving a sports car”) are very similar. Haikyuu!! may be the most beautifully animated sports anime ever, so that’s all good.
Haikyuu!! animation director Chiba Takahiro (who was at A/X along with director Itazu Yoshimi) performed that role on Haikyuu!! and brought much of his team with him to “Ballroom”. If indeed one gets a Haikyuu!! vibe from Ballroom, it shouldn’t entirely be a surprise, as both shows come from Production I.G. We’ll see how each series develops over time – both have the luxury of two cours to play with. For me at least it shared that honor with Shoukoku no Altair, and my assessment of both premieres is roughly the same – highly competent and entertaining work by rock-solid staff from a prestige studio that didn’t quite blow me away (as Made in Abyss did, for example), but didn’t leave my let down in any way. I know that manga is extremely popular I know this anime is arguably the most highly-anticipated of the season. I come at Welcome to the Ballroom as someone who’s scratched the surface of the manga, but for the most part is unspoiled. If anything, the initial impression has solidified. And funnily enough, a week later I find my feelings about it haven’t changed much at all.
To be honest, my initial take on it (as I said at the time) was “Dance Haikyuu with Necks”. I was lucky enough to see the world premiere of Ballroom e Youkoso at Anime Expo last week, but of course one’s reactions watching it on television should be a little different than in a giant expo hall surrounded by 3500 screaming partisans. OP: 「10% roll, 10% romance」 by (UNISON SQUARE GARDEN)