‘Love All Play’ Badminton TV Anime Reveals Cast, Visual, April 2 Premiere (Update)

The official website for the television anime of Asami Koseki‘s Love All Play badminton novel revealed on Wednesday the anime’s cast, visual, and April 2 premiere. The anime will air on YTV, NTV, and their affiliates on Saturdays at 5:30 p.m.

Yōhei Azakami as Shо̄hei Sakaki

Makoto Furukawa as Kо̄ki Matsuda

Kensho Ono as Taichi Higashiyama

Tetsuya Kakihara as Yо̄ji Higashiyama

Yuuki Kaji as Akira Uchida

Minako Kotobuki as Rika Mizushima

Kazuya Nakai as Hitoshi Ebihara

The official Twitter account for Shueisha‘s Tonari no Young Jump website also announced on Wednesday that the anime is getting a manga adaptation by Dam Miyata. There will be a one-shot on Friday.

The tagline in the visual on the right reads, “A once-in-a-lifetime coming-of-age that hurtles at 400 km/h (250 mph), love-all play!!” The anime’s website notes the pundits’ claim that the shuttlecock’s initial speed after a smash makes badminton the “world’s fastest sport.” The anime’s title comes from the score (love-all) at the start of a match.

The story follows Ryō Mizushima, who joined his middle school’s badminton team full of motivation — but without a proper coach, ended up in obscurity. Nevertheless, he did eventually reach the prefectural tournament on his physical strength. Now he joins the prestigious Yokohama-Minato High School’s badminton team under the legendary coach Ebihara and surrounded by talented teammates. He strives to become a top athlete and take his high school team to the inter-high tournament.

Hiroshi Takeuchi (Peacemaker Kurogane: Belief storyboarder, Blade & Soul, Zunda Horizon) is directing the anime at Nippon Animation and OLM. Tomoko Konparu (Uta no Prince-sama – Maji Love 1000%, Nodame Cantabile) is supervising the series scripts and writing them with Miharu Hirami (Kodocha, The New Adventures of Kimba The White Lion), Shingo Irie (All Out!!, Kuroko’s Basketball), and Michiko Yokote (Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!, Genshiken, Shirobako). Riko Kaneda is designing the characters, and Yuki Hayashi (My Hero Academia, Welcome to the Ballroom, Shaman King) is composing the music.

Sporting goods maker YONEX is supervising and collaborating on the designs for the anime. YONEX assisted on a previous badminton anime, Hanebad! from 2018.

Poplar’s Pureful imprint published the first Love All Play novel in May 2011, and Koseki has since written three more follow-up novels.

Update: Added information on manga announcement. Source: Tonari no Young Jump‘s Twitter account

Sources: Love All Play anime’s website and Twitter account, Mainichi Shimbun’s Mantan Web