It’s the new year but we will never get tired of sports anime—especially sports that have yet to receive an anime show. This time Japan gives us an anime series on the contact sport (that’s hard to watch sometimes because the players appear to get hurt real bad) rugby!

Entitled number24, the rugby series is an original anime—meaning, not adapted from any manga or light novel. A promotional video that was released gives us a glimpse into this new sports anime as well as its opening theme song. Check out the video here!

The series is set for a January 8 premiere. The series’ website has previously revealed that the show will run for 12 episodes, to be distributed across six home video releases.

The anime’s cast are:

· Kengo Kawanishi as Natsusa Yuzuki

· Ryōta Suzuki as Seiichirō Jingyōji

· Junichi Yanagita as Ibuki Ueoka

· Shōhei Komatsu as Yasunari Tsuru

· Ayumu Murase as Yū Mashiro

· Hinata Tadokoro as Gakuto Zaitsu

· Shinnosuke Tachibana as Ikuto Yufu

· Makoto Furukawa as Taisei Uchinashi

· Kazuyuki Okitsu as Ethan Taylor

· Sōma Saitō as Madoka Hongō

· Kaito Ishikawa as Kazutaka Hongō

· Takuya Kodama as Fūga Saitō

· Aoi Ichikawa as Yayoi Tsuzura

· Masamu Ono as Sunao Konoe

· Shinnosuke Murashima as Tsūgen Sasaki

· Yūki Inoue as Li Hongbin

· Kentarō Kumagai as Makoto Someya

· Mizuki Chiba as Ren Tamashiro

· Kōhei Amasaki as Kotori Kureh

· Gakuto Kajiwara as Shōta U

· Atsushi Taniguchi as Sōsuke Yamada

· Yūki Ishikari as Atomu Gotō

· Ryūma Kuno as Pongsaklek Yunu

· Shougo Yano as Takumi Hidaka

· Daichi Kanbara as Toranoshin Higashizaka

· Masanori Kobayashi as Yūki Koreeda

· Yūta Hayama as Shinya Ishigami

number24’s story is described by Anime News Network as thus:

“The anime’s college rugby story centers on Natsusa Yuzuki, who expects to be an ace on the rugby team when he enrolls in college. However, he is no longer able to play rugby due to certain circumstances. Ibuki Ueoka is an older fellow student who quit rugby. Yasunari Tsuru is a younger student who finds Natsusa disagreeable. Yū Mashiro is a younger student who admires and follows Natsusa. Seiichirō Shingyō is Natsusa’s close childhood friend. Together, they compete in the Kansai university rugby league.”

Shigeru Kimiya (Gift – eternal rainbow) is directing the series for PRA. Kei Mori (Verrocchio Agency) is credited for the original work, while story concept is credited to MOVIC. Scripts will be done by Rika Nakase (Rocket Girls), with YukiKana drawing the original character designs and Saori Sakaguchi (Yuri!!! On ICE) is chief animation director.

The opening theme song “Set” will be performed by Masanori Kobayashi. The anime will have three ED songs to be performed by the cast members: Kengo Kawanishi and Ryōta Suzuki will perform the song “Kimi to Iru nara”, Kawanishi and Junichi Yanagita will perform the song “Comical Try!!”, and Kawanishi and Shōhei Komatsu will perform the song “Every Fight”.

Source: Anime News Network