News Reporting

Hanebad! Adds Ai Kayano, 3 More Cast Members


It looks like the badminton court’s getting a bit more crowded today.

Earlier today, the official Hanebad! anime website updated with four new cast members. The series will add the following:

  • Connie Christensen: Mariya Ise
  • Kaoruko Serigaya: Asami Shimoda
  • Nozomi Ishizawa: Arisa Sakuraba
  • Yuika Shiwahime: Ai Kayano

Visuals for the characters were also revealed, which you can check out below:

Hanebad! hits Japanese TV this July. Tokyo MX, Kansai TV, BS11, and AT-X will carry the series.

Hanebad! Anime Key Visual Shinpei Ezaki (Guilty Crown: Lost Christmas, Monster Strike The Movie) was tapped to direct the project at Liden Films, with Satoshi Kimura (Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor, Terraformars) providing character designs. Taku Kishimoto (Bunny Drop, Haikyu!!) is in charge of series composition.

YURiKA will perform the show’s opening theme, while Yuiko Ōhara provides the closing theme.

Other key staffers include:

  • Music: Tatsuya Katō
  • Sound Director: Kazuhiro Wakabayashi

The series will star the following:

  • Ayano Hanesaki: Hitomi Ohwada
  • Nagisa Aragaki: Miyuri Shimabukuro
  • Kentarō Tachibana: Nobuhiko Okamoto
  • Riko Izumi: Yuuna Mimura
  • Erena Fujisawa: Konomi Kohara
  • Uraka Hanesaki: Sayaka Ohara
  • Miyako Tarōmaru: Mikako Komatsu

Hanebad! launched in the pages of Kodansha’s good! Afternoon magazine in 2013. The ongoing title currently spans eleven compiled volumes, with the most recent hitting retailers in October 2017. A side story novel by Yūichi Mochizuki (with illustrations by Hamada) will be released under Kodansha’s main imprint on June 29.

Manga resource Baka-Updates describes the title as:

Tachibana Kentarou is a high-school badminton coach who has a lot more enthusiasm than some of the members of his very small team. One day, he meets the quiet-voiced student Hanesaki Ayano, who is effortlessly physically capable and experienced in badminton. He tries to recruit her, but she seems to have no interest in the sport at all. Due to a series of circumstances, she eventually ends up joining the team. Coach Tachibana is determined that with her on board, they’ll be champions!

Source: Comic Natalie

About the author

Samantha Ferreira

Samantha Ferreira is Anime Herald’s founder and editor-in-chief. A Rhode Island native, Samantha has been an anime fan since 1992, and an active member of the anime press since 2002, when she began working as a reviewer for Anime Dream. She launched Anime Herald in 2010, and continues to oversee its operations to this day. Outside of journalism, Samantha actively studies the history of the North American anime fandom and industry, with a particular focus on the 2000s anime boom and bust. She’s a huge fan of all things Sakura Wars, and maintains series fansite Combat Revue Review when she has free time available. When not in the Anime Herald Discord, Samantha can typically be found on Bluesky.

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