This year's seventh issue of Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine revealed the staff and a key visual for the upcoming television anime of Tsuyoshi Yasuda's DAYS soccer manga on Wednesday.

Kônosuke Uda ( One Piece , Ginga e Kickoff!! , Majin Bone ) is directing the anime at MAPPA ( Terror in Resonance , Rage of Bahamut Genesis ). Kazuto Nakazawa ( El-Hazard: The Wanderers , The Legend of Black Heaven , Terror in Resonance ) is designing the characters for animation. Masafumi Mima ( Macross Frontier , Infinite Stratos , Attack on Titan ) is in charge of sound direction at Technosound. Yoshihiro Ike ( Empire of Corpses , Cobra the Animation , Rage of Bahamut Genesis ) is composing the music. Pony Canyon is producing the music.

The manga centers on two boys who were never meant to meet: Tsukushi Tsukamoto, who has no special skills but secretly hides a passionate heart, and Jin Kazama, an isolated soccer genius. On a stormy night, the two meet, and that meeting creates a whirlwind in the world of high school soccer.

Yasuda launched DAYS in Weekly Shonen Magazine in April 2013, and Kodansha published the 14th compiled volume on November 17. The company will publish the 15th compiled volume on January 15. The manga was nominated in the Best Shōnen Manga category for Kodansha's 39th Annual Manga Awards in March, and it ranked at #12 on the Honya Club website's "Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics of 2014" list.

Yasuda's Over Drive bicycle manga was adapted into a 26-episode television anime series with director Takao Kato (Busou Renkin, To Love-Ru) in 2007.

[Key visual via Comic Natalie]