Violence and poverty are part of everyday life for villagers during the Nanboku-chō period, during which a decades-long civil war has broken out between the Kyoto Northern and Southern Courts. Desperate for distraction, people turn to the theater, including the form called sarugaku. Kan’ami is a master of this medium—which combines acting, music, singing, and dancing—and commands ecstatic crowds wherever the Kanze troupe goes. Unfortunately, his zealousness for dance isn’t shared by his son, Oniyashi, who finds dance “unnatural” and uninteresting. Oniyashi also feels disconnected from his once-loving father, who has become harsh and now seems only to think of his craft and not his son. Anyway, Oniyashi reflects, what power does dance really have? It certainly doesn’t have the power to change the world—or does it?

I’m not typically a fan of modern historical anime (this one is centered on a boy who will one day become Zeami Motokiyo, a notable performer of Noh, of which sarugaku was a predessor), but episode one of The World Is Dancing had me on my feet and excited for the story this series is planning to tell—and even more so, how it’s telling it. Right from the opening scenes, episode one is full of brilliant colors and beautiful scenery, while at once keeping the historic feel that’s necessary; this is 1374 Japan, and with the attention given to the villagers and their clothing, and to the rural scenery (including Shinto statuary), it feels precisely like that. But there’s more to the animation than this; it’s inventive and creative, changing from the usual style to other ones as emphasis is needed. For instance, when Oniyashi encounters a shirabyoshi whose dance ignites something within him, the animation first becomes squiggly and the stuff of horror anime, as we sense danger, and then it turns sketchy, punctuated by static movements when the boy witnesses the dancer. I couldn’t help but think that, even with the archaic touches that keep us in this time period, this is exactly the type of thing I wanted out of Wandance, which instead gave us awful, CGI dancing. But that’s not all—the anime delivers again and again in episode one, from the animation (including a cool scene where Japanese characters erupt onto the screen during a run) to humorous slapstick, and from interesting performances (Yumiri Hanamori is expressive and vibrant as Oniyashi) to a beautiful, passionate ED. Cypic animation studio, which was started to produce anime based on Cygames’ products, is now producing some of the most stunning (The Summer Hikaru Died) and anticipated (Kagurabachi) anime of recent years—add another one to the list. This could end up as one of the best anime of 2026.

The World Is Dancing can be streamed on HIDIVE.