Backflip!!
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| Backflip!! | |
 Anime key visual | |
| バクテン!! | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Sports (rhythmic gymnastics)[1] |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Kei Sakuraba |
| Published by | Kodansha |
| Magazine | Dessert |
| Demographic | Shōjo |
| Original run | January 22, 2021 – present |
| Anime television series | |
| Directed by | Toshimasa Kuroyanagi Seishirou Nagaya |
| Written by | Toshizou Nemoto |
| Music by | Yuki Hayashi |
| Studio | Zexcs |
| Licensed by | Crunchyroll |
| Original network | Fuji TV (Noitamina) |
| Original run | April 9, 2021 – present |
| Episodes | 9 |
Backflip!! (バクテン!!, "Bakuten!!") is an original Japanese anime television series animated by Zexcs, directed by Toshimasa Kuroyanagi and written by Toshizo Nemoto. Original character designs are provided by Robico, the author of My Little Monster, while Yūki Shibata adapts the designs for animation. Yuki Hayashi is composing the series' music. The series is part of the "Zutto Ōen Project 2011 + 10...", commemorating the 10th anniversary of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. It premiered in Fuji TV's Noitamina programming block on April 9, 2021.[2][1] Centimillimental performed the series' opening theme song "Seishun no Enbu", while wacci performed the series' ending theme song "Anata ga Iru".[2][3] A manga adaptation began serialization in Kodansha's Dessert manga magazine on January 22, 2021.[2] Crunchyroll licensed the series outside of Asia.[4]
Characters
Sōshūkan High School
Also known as Ao High School. Theirs is a newly formed team with the current third years being the first members.
- Shōtarō Futaba (双葉翔太郎, Futaba Shōtarō)
- Voiced by: Shimba Tsuchiya[1]
The protagonist and first year student. He played a number of sports ending with baseball before high school, but was always in the bench. After witnessing a performance from the members of Men's Rhythmic Gymnastic club at a tournament, he becomes interested and joins the club in his first year.
Shōtarō is an enthusiastic and innocent young boy, who finds great joy doing backflips and is inspired by the watching everyone perform. Since he was also doing other sports, he is flexible and has enough stamina to get started with gymnastics right away. A running gag in the anime is Onagawa coming up with nicknames for him ending with 'leaf' (since a part of his name has 'ba' which means leaf), which he refuses to accept.
- Ryōya Misato (美里良夜, Misato Ryōya)
- Voiced by: Kaito Ishikawa[1]
A first year and the ace of his former gymnastics team in middle school. He lives with his aunt after both his parents pass away. He joins Sōshūkan since he was impressed and inspired by the coach Shūsaku's performance from his school days. He his mostly stoic and rarely smiles, but he starts putting in an effort to rely on his teammates. He is a major inspiration for Shōtarō, who picks up how to backflip by looking at him perform.
He was also former teammates with Mashiro and shares a rivalry with him. A running gag in the anime is Onagawa coming up with nicknames for him ending with 'ace', which he refuses to accept.
- Masamune Shichigahama (七ヶ浜政宗, Shichigahama Masamune)
- Voiced by: Daisuke Ono[1]
A third year and team captain. He is always enthusiastic and encouraging and the team's major driving force. He was very involved in recruiting more boys to the team to raise the number to 6. His interests in gymnastics start after he sees Shūsaku's backflips at a park.
His family is in the business of making sasa kamaboko and he is often seen peeling the wrappers off them, to be served as part of dinner for the team. He also shares a rivalry with Takase, who critisizes sasa kamaboko since Shichigahama critisizes apples.
- Keisuke Tsukidate (築館敬助, Tsukidate Keisuke)
- Voiced by: Takashi Kondō[1]
A third year and vice captain, an all rounder in gymnastics and a calm and collected type. He joined the team after he got interested seeing Shichigahama's backflip. He shares his love for moss, which becomes the base for his friendship with Ryūgamori, who loves plants. His family manages a shrine.
- Nagayoshi Onagawa (女川ながよし, Onagawa Nagayoshi)
- Voiced by: Hiro Shimono[1]
A third year and the ace. He actually shares the position of ace with Misato sometimes. He joined the team after he got interested seeing Shichigahama's backflip. A running gag is him coming up with new nicknames for Shōtarō, which end with 'leaf' and Masato, which end with 'ace', which the two juniors never want to accept.
He is an ardent fan of Masami Kudo, who is a part of the idol group Tan Tan Girls and keeps trying to impress his opinion on the juniors. He often argues with Ōminato over their preference of the type of idols. His father is a fishmonger, and often donates a fish for the boys' dinner.
- Kōtarō Watari (亘理光太郎, Watari Kōtarō)
- Voiced by: Hiroshi Kamiya[1]
A second year, who also joined the club after getting impressed seeing his seniors' backflip. He keeps making a scary face and talks rough, though he is actually kind within. He is a very big fan of yakuza movies, Bunya in particular.
His family manages a ramen shop, and because of this, he's good at cooking and usually in charge of making the dinner, until Misato comes along.
- Shūsaku Shida (志田周作, Shida Shūsaku)
- Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai[5]
The coach. He used to be a star athlete, the ace of Hakumei University, capable enough to make Men's Rhythmic Gymnastic become an Olympic event. When he was still an athelete, he was one with a very arrogant dememour, treating people who couldn't perform well as trash. He had to retire due to a leg injury.
After retiring from Men's Rhythmic Gymnastic, he meets his now wife at the facility he is treated where she was working as a nurse. She mentally enables him, who couldn't do gymnastics any longer to move forward and find a new path. His character changes a lot after this, and he becomes a lot more calmer, patient and helpful to his students.
He struggles to find a job, but meets and teaches the current third years rhythmic gymnastic and then struggles again to create the Men's Rhythmic Gymnastic club in the school.
A running gag is him giving advice, mentioning that his wife is the one who originally said it, to his students (or anybody else), only for them to gaze blankly, since they have never met his wife, and think that he might have made her up.
- Asawo Kurikoma (栗駒あさを, Kurikoma Asawo)
- Voiced by: Ayane Sakura[6]
The manager of the club, she is also Shida's relative (as such, he calls her with a -chan). Although she has a soft voice and is often expressionless, she doesn't mind teasing the boys and is well integrated with the rest of the team. She is actually very interested in the club activities, is vocal and manages her role really well. She even makes their uniforms, takes videos of their practice for review, and uses software to mimic their choreography. She also mentions that Shida's wife is a real person (which she is) as she is the only person who has seen her.
Hakumei University Affiliated High School
- Mashiro Tsukiyuki (月雪ましろ, Tsukiyuki Mashiro)
- Voiced by: Ayumu Murase[3]
The first year young prodigy. Similar to Futaba, he was in multiple clubs before joining Men's Rhythmic Gymnastics, but the reason was that he found them boring since he was able to do them easily. He started gymnastics after seeing Misato perform and stays since Misato provides him good competition.
He was unaware of Misato being in Sōshūkan High School until their joint practice started, and didn't even remember seeing Futaba until later. He initially didn't have much interest in Futaba, but later becomes curious after seeing him perform.
He is mostly aloof and playful, doing things at his own pace. He gets involved in games so much that he doesn't notice the many calls and messages that his seniors leave trying to connect with him. He also likes eating whatever food he finds delicious without regard to time or place.
- Tōru Takase (高瀬亨, Takase Tōru)
- Voiced by: Katsuyuki Konishi[3]
A third year student and the captain of the team. He got on the wrong foot with Shichigahama in their first meeting when Shichigahama said that 'all apples taste the same', and he responded that 'sasa kamaboko is just a kamaboko with a different shape'.
Even so, he is actually pretty good friends with him and is considerably impressed by the performance of Ao high students and considers them worthy rivals.
- Yōjirō Mutsu (陸奥洋二郎, Mutsu Yōjirō)
- Voiced by: Kenichi Suzumura[3]
A third year student and the vice-captain of the team. He is the one incharge of keeping the captain's excessive emotions in place. Though he always stops Takase from scolding Mashiro, Mashiro is more scared of him. He is also equally impressed by the performance of Ao high students and considers them worthy rivals.
- Hideo Ōminato (大湊秀夫, Ōminato Hideo)
- Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita[3]
A second year student. He is a fan of Kazamaura Aki from Aomori Nebuta Dream and has a rivalry with Onagawa over what type of idols they are each fan of.
- Kyōichi Ryūgamori (竜ヶ森恭一, Ryūgamori Kyōichi)
- Voiced by: Soma Saito[3]
A second year student. He has a calm and aloof personality. He is good with plants and arranges flowers to look better and hold longer when he sees them. He shares a friendship with Tsukidate due to their common interest in plants.
- Shunsuke Azuma (吾妻俊介, Azuma Shunsuke)
- Voiced by: Daiki Yamashita[3]
A first year student. He is the loudest in the team and also a fan of yakuza movies, albeit preferring characters which get the girl and win in the end, as opposed to Watari's preferences.
- Shūji Mabuchi (馬淵修司, Mabuchi Shūji)
- Voiced by: Kenichirō Matsuda[7]
The coach of Hakumei Private High School and alumni of Hakumei university, who used to be the captain of the team when Shida was in it. He belives that if Shida hadn't retired due to injury, he could have taken Men's Rhythmic Gymnastic to a level where it would have become a part of Olympics. He was also one of the few who lent a helping hand to Shida after his injury.
Other characters
- Ayumi Futaba (双葉亜由美, Futaba Ayumi)
- Voiced by: Reina Ueda[8]
Episode list
| No. | Title [9][10] | Directed by [a] | Storyboarded by [a] | Original air date [11] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "I Want to Backflip!" Transliteration: "Bakuten Shitai!" (Japanese: バク転したい！) | Toshimasa Kuroyanagi | Toshimasa Kuroyanagi | April 9, 2021[b] |
| 2 | "I Want to Soar With You" Transliteration: "Issho ni Tobitai!" (Japanese: 一緒に跳びたい！) | Seishirō Nagaya | Seishirō Nagaya | April 16, 2021 |
| 3 | "I want to camp!" Transliteration: "Gasshuku Shitai!" (Japanese: 合宿したい！) | Yoshiyuki Fujiwara | Yoshiyuki Fujiwara | April 23, 2021 |
| 4 | "We're All Rivals!" Transliteration: "Raibaru nan da!" (Japanese: ライバルなんだ！) | Miwa Sasaki | Miwa Sasaki | April 30, 2021 |
| 5 | "I Want to Hide!" Transliteration: "Kakuretai!" (Japanese: かくれたい！) | Hayato Sakai | Seishirō Nagaya | May 7, 2021[c] |
| 6 | "Enjoy!" Transliteration: "Tanoshinde!" (Japanese: 楽しんで！) | Tetsuya Endō Seishirō Nagaya | Yoshiyuki Fujiwara Toshimasa Kuroyanagi | May 14, 2021 |
| 7 | "We'll Make a Promise!" Transliteration: "Yakusoku Shimasu!" (Japanese: 約束します！) | Ryōji Masuyama | Ryōji Masuyama | May 21, 2021 |
| 8 | "I'll Look After You!" Transliteration: "Osewa Shimasu!" (Japanese: お世話します！) | Kuniyasu Nishina | Susumu Mitsunaka | May 28, 2021[d] |
| 9 | "Be Needy!" Transliteration: "Amaete yo!" (Japanese: 甘えてよ！) | Yoshiyuki Fujiwara | Yoshiyuki Fujiwara | June 4, 2021 |
| 10 | "I Can't Stand It!" Transliteration: "Gaman Dekinai!" (Japanese: 我慢出来ない！) | Unknown | TBA | June 11, 2021 |
Notes
- ^ a b Information is taken from the ending credits of each episode.
- ^ This episode aired at 1:10 a.m. JST, 15 minutes after the original air time on Fuji TV.
- ^ This episode aired at 1:15 a.m. JST, 20 minutes after the original air time on Fuji TV.
- ^ This episode aired at 1:05 a.m. JST, 10 minutes after the original air time on Fuji TV.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h "noitaminA Reveals Bakuten!! Rhythmic Gymnastics Anime for April 2021". Anime News Network. November 4, 2020. Retrieved November 5, 2020.
- ^ a b c Hodgkins, Crystalyn (February 18, 2021). "Bakuten!! Rhythmic Gymnastics Anime's 3rd Promo Video Reveals April 8 Debut". Anime News Network. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Bakuten!! Rhythmic Gymnastics Anime's 2nd Video Reveals More Cast, Staff, Opening Song". Anime News Network. January 20, 2021. Retrieved January 20, 2021.
- ^ "FINAL UPDATE: Crunchyroll Announces Spring 2021 Anime Lineup! (4/6)". Crunchyroll. April 6, 2021. Retrieved April 6, 2021.
- ^ Hodgkins, Crystalyn (February 25, 2021). "Takahiro Sakurai Joins Cast of Bakuten!! Rhythmic Gymnastics Anime". Anime News Network. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
- ^ Hodgkins, Crystalyn (March 4, 2021). "Ayane Sakura Joins Cast of Bakuten!! Rhythmic Gymnastics Anime". Anime News Network. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
- ^ Hodgkins, Crystalyn (March 11, 2021). "Kenichirō Matsuda Joins Cast of Bakuten!! Rhythmic Gymnastics Anime". Anime News Network. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
- ^ Mateo, Alex (March 16, 2021). "Bakuten!! Rhythmic Gymnastics Anime Casts Reina Ueda". Anime News Network. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
- ^ "Sutōrī – Orijinaru Terebi Anime "Bakuten!!"" STORY – オリジナルTVアニメ『バクテン!!』 [Story – Original TV Anime "Backflip!!"]. bakuten-pr.com (in Japanese). Archived from the original on April 6, 2021. Retrieved April 6, 2021.
- ^ "Backflip!! - Watch on Crunchyroll". Crunchyroll. Archived from the original on April 8, 2021. Retrieved April 8, 2021.
- ^ "On'ea – Orijinaru Terebi Anime "Bakuten!!"" ON AIR – オリジナルTVアニメ『バクテン!!』 [On Air – Original TV Anime "Backflip!!"]. bakuten-pr.com (in Japanese). Archived from the original on March 18, 2021. Retrieved March 18, 2021.
External links
- Anime official website (in Japanese)
- Backflip!! (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
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