So, how long ’til we call this one “Friendship is Climbing?”
Earlier today, the official Encouragement of Climb (Yama no Susume) anime website updated with a new key visual. The image features the main characters standing atop a mountain next to an ancient lantern.
Encouragement of Climb returns to Japanese TV in July.
Yusuke Yamamoto (B Gata H Kei – Yamada’s First Time, Sgt. Frog) is returning to the director’s chair at studio 8-Bit, with Yuusuke Matsuo (The IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls, Black Rock Shooter OVA) providing character designs. Kazuyuki Fudeyasu (Is the order a rabbit?, Monster Musume) is writing the screenplay.
yamazo/Tom-H@ck will score the season’s soundtrack.
The main voice cast includes:
- Hinata Karaue: Kana Asumi
- Kaede Saitō: Yōko Hikasa
- Kokona Aoba: Yui Ogura
- Aoi Yukimura: Yuka Iguchi
- Kasumi: Ai Yamamoto
- Mio: Ayaka Nanase
- Yuri: Kanon Takao
- Yūka Sasahara: Yui Makino
- Hikari Onozuka: Yuko Gibu
The first anime season aired in Winter 2013, and ran for twelve half-hour episodes. The second season hit Japanese TV in Summer 2014, and ran for twenty-four 15-minute episodes. Crunchyroll streamed the first season of Encouragement of Climb on their digital platform. They describe the show as:
Aoi prefers indoor hobbies and is afraid of heights, but her childhood friend Hinata loves to show off her passion for mountain climbing. As young children they once watched the sunrise from the top of a mountain, and now they’ve decided to take up mountain climbing in hopes of seeing that sunrise again. They have cooking battles with mountaineering gear, climb small hills in their neighborhood, and meet new mountaineering friends as they learn the ropes of the hobby. When will they finally see that sunrise again?
The Encouragement of Climb manga originally launched in Earth Star’s Comic Earth Star Online magazine in 2011. The ongoing series currently spans eleven volumes, with the most recent hitting stores on March 12, 2016.
Source: Animate Times
