Description
J.C. Staff announced a new original anime, “Skate-Leading☆Stars” in collaboration with Goro Taniguchi (Code Geass director) as chief director and Yana Toboso (Kuroshitsuji original creator) as character designer.
Why it could be interesting?
Taniguchi will be quite busy this year considering the recent announcement of Back Arrow where he’ll be the director and Skate-Leading Stars that will see him as chief director.
The pair with Yana Toboso, the popular mangaka that created Black Butler, makes me really curious to see if Skate-Leading Stars will be the J.C. Staff version of Yuri on Ice or a completely different project.
Synopsis
The anime centers on high school students in a competitive team-based version of figure skating named “skate-leading.” Skate leading is a bit different from regular ice-skating with a team made of five people that performs together with different roles: lead, wings and guard.
The scoring system is based on an automated camera and on the vote of nine judges; technical skills and artistic presentation are two of the main aspects evaluated.
“You will never beat me”
Kensei Maeshima left figure skating after hearing these words from his rival Reo Shinozaki. A few years later Kensei, now a high school student, sees a press conference where Reo announced that he would have shifted from figure skating to skate-leading. After meeting another student named Hayato Sasugai, who knows of Kensei’s previous career, Kensi accepts Hayato’s proposal to join his team in skate-leading.
News
Full Staff and short Teaser revealed
The official website of Skate-Leading Stars revealed the full cast of voice actors and staff members; highlights include:
Voice Actors:
- Kenji Nojima (Eiji in Banana Fish) will play Susumu Ishikawa
Staff:
- Ryo Takahashi (ACCA, Princess Principal) is producing the original soundtrack.
- Toshinori Fukushima (Major) as director.
A short teaser introduces the characters and the Opening Theme “Chase the Core” by Takao Sakuma.
Manga adaptation announced by Square Enix
The April issue of Square Enix’ G Fantasy revealed that a manga adaptation of the upcoming anime Skate-Leading Stars written by Chiaki Nagaoka and illustrated by Sumika Sumio is in production.
Key visual and voice actors cast announced
J.C. Staff opened an official website and Twitter account fo Skate-Leading stars and posted the first Key visual of the upcoming anime with the voice actors of the three main characters:
- Kensei Maeshima: Yuuma Uchida (Ash Lynx in Banana Fish)
- Hayato Sasugai: Makoto Furukawa (Saitama in OnePunchMan)
- Reo Shinozaki: Hiroshi Kamiya (Levi in Attack on Titan)