The TV anime adaptation of Kazuto Mihara‘s Noh manga, The World Is Dancing, has been officially announced for broadcasting and streaming in Summer 2026. The manga explores the art of Noh and was originally serialized in Kodansha’s Morning magazine. The World Is Dancing is animated by CygamesPictures, and the project is co-produced by CyberAgent and Shochiku.
In 1374, amid the turmoil of the Northern and Southern Courts’ long running conflict, a boy named Oniyasha is born into a family of sarugaku theater performers. He spends his days in a kind of quiet gloom, haunted by a simple but persistent question: Why do people dance? Then, one day, he witnesses a dance that he feels to be “good”—and everything begins to change. This is the story of the beautiful young boy who would one day shape the art of Noh and be remembered as Zeami.
To launch the announcement, character designer Keigo Sasaki drew the following teaser which features calligraphy by Satoshi Nemoto.
Author Kazuto Mihara also drew a commemorative illustration to celebrate today’s anime announcement.
Toshimasa Kuroyanagi (Shounen Hollywood, The Great Passage, Love Me, Love Me Not, and Backflip!! film and anime series) will be directing the anime. Keigo Sasaki (Millionaire Detective – Balance: UNLIMITED, Lonely Castle in the Mirror, and Umamusume: Cinderella Gray) is responsible for the character designs, and Satoshi Nemoto helms the calligraphy and the title lettering.
This is the story of a boy named Oniyasha, who continues to challenge himself creatively during an era when Noh—now considered a classical performing art—was still called Sarugaku and was the cutting‑edge entertainment of its time.
Watching him, we felt it connected to the “beginner’s spirit” that still lives somewhere inside all of us. That feeling inspired the entire crew to work hard to create an anime that everyone can enjoy. Just as the “flower” that Oniyasha discovers has endured for 600 years, we want to craft this story with great care so that it, too, can be loved for generations to come.
-Toshimasa Kuroyanagi
Source: CyberAgent
