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Bakuten!! Rhythmic Gymnastics Anime Casts Reina Ueda

The official website for the Bakuten!! (Backflip!!) original television anime revealed on Tuesday that Reina Ueda is joining the show's cast as Ayumi Futaba, Shōtarō's younger sister. She is still treated as the baby of the family despite being already a second-year junior high school student. She and her brother are close, and she loves her mother's homemade dumplings.

The show will premiere on Fuji TV's Noitamina programming block on April 8.

The anime stars:

• Shimba Tsuchiya as Shōtarō Futaba
• Kaito Ishikawa as Ryōya Misato
• Daisuke Ono as Masamune Shichigahama
• Takashi Kondō as Keisuke Tsukidate
• Hiro Shimono as Nagayoshi Onagawa
• Hiroshi Kamiya as Kōtarō Watari
• Ayumu Murase as Mashiro Tsukiyuki
• Katsuyuki Konishi as Tōru Takase
• Kenichi Suzumura as Yōjirō Mutsu
• Tomokazu Sugita as Hideo Ōminato
• Sōma Saitō as Kyōichi Ryūgamori
• Daiki Yamashita as Shunsuke Azuma
• Takahiro Sakurai as Shūsaku Shida
• Ayane Sakura as Asawo Kurikoma
• Kenichirō Matsuda as Shūji Mabuchi

The anime, which is set in Miyagi Prefecture, is one of three anime projects part of the larger "Zutto Ōen Project 2011 + 10..." initiative aimed at promoting Miyagi, Iwate, and Fukushima (the other two anime projects are Misaki no Mayoiga and Hula Fulla Dance). The "Zutto Ōen Project 2011 + 10..." is in remembrance of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami 10 years ago.

The anime is set in Miyagi Prefecture's Iwanuma City, and centers on a high school rhythmic gymnastics team. The anime follows Shōtarō Futaba, who is fascinated by gymnastics after seeing it in his third year of middle school, and joins the rhythmic gymnastics team of his new high school Sōshūkan High School, nicknamed "Ao High." He makes a friend with his schoolmate Ryōya Misato, who earned fame as a gymnast during middle school.

Toshimasa Kuroyanagi (The Great Passage, Omoi, Omoware, Furi, Furare) is directing the anime at ZEXCS. Toshizo Nemoto (Log Horizon season 2, Macross Delta, Last Hope) is in charge of series composition and scripts. My Little Monster manga creator Robico is drawing the original character designs, while Yūki Shibata (Kimi ni Todoke 2nd Season, Magical Sisters Yoyo & Nene, After the Rain) is drawing the character designs for animation, and is also the chief animation director. Fumiaki Kouta is the animation director for the rhythmic gymnastics. Yuki Hayashi is composing the music. The band Centimillimental will perform the opening theme song "Seishun no Enbu" (The Dance of Youth), and wacci will perform the ending theme song "Anata ga Iru" (You Are Here).

Kei Sakuraba is drawing a manga adaptation, which premiered in Kodansha's Dessert magazine on January 22.

Anime News Network's Sources: Bakuten!! anime's website, Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web