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A new trailer for Tsurune: The Linking Shot (Season 2) was revealed on Friday along with a new key visual. The series will continue to be animated by studio Kyoto Animation and is set to begin streaming on HIDIVE on January 4, 2023. Takuya Yamamura is reprising his role as director for Season 2. The upcoming season also released its first teaser trailer back in August.
The recent movie for the anime series titled Tsurune: Hajimari no Hitosa, which was released on August 19—the same day Tsurune Season 2 was officially announced—was also directed by Yamamura. Tsurune Season 1 began airing in October 2018 and ran for a total of 13 episodes that spanned into 2019, finishing with a special OVA.
Tsurune Season 2 Staff
Yamamura reprising his role as director for Tsurune Season 2 is a good sign, but not shocking. As Kyoto Animation is famously known for keeping its production work in-house, Yamamura also has extensive work that’s been animated by the industry-renowned studio. He worked as an episode director for what’s argued as one of the greatest anime of all time in Violet Evergarden and also handled the storyboard for the studio’s most popular movie A Silent Voice. Yamamura was also in charge of episode storyboards for other popular Kyoto Animation titles such as Sound! Euphonium (Episodes 3 and 10 for both seasons) and Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid (multiple episodes across both seasons).
Michiko Yokote will be returning to handle the series composition for the upcoming season. Other notable series composition works of hers include series such as Call of the Night, ReLIFE, and Prison School. Yokote also handled the script for numerous episodes of iconic anime such as Bleach, Naruto, Cowboy Bebop, and Gintama. Other series that Yokote will be working on in 2023 include Grimm (Studio: WIT Studio), Yumemiru Danshi wa Genjitsushugisha (Studios: Gokumi and AXsiZ), and Onimai: I’m Now Your Sister! (Studio: Bind).
Masaru Yokoyama will be making his music composition return for the new season as well. And the real question is what series hasn’t Yokoyama composed for? He composed the music for iconic series such as Your Lie in April, Plastic Memories, Fruits Basket Scum’s Wish, Astra: Lost in Space, and even more recent series such as Ao Ashi, Classroom of the Elite Season 2, Urusei Yatsura (2022). Yokoyama also composed the music for both recent films Fruits Basket: Prelude and Bokura no Yoake. As for 2023, along with Tsurune Season 2, he will also be composing the music for other big-name upcoming series such as Mashle: Magic and Muscles and Tomo-chan Is a Girl! The rest of the Tsurune Season 2 staff will be reprising their same roles from the previous season:
- Art Director: Shōko Ochiai (Background Art – A Silent Voice, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, Sound! Euphonium)
- Character Design: Miku Kadowaki (Animation Director – Violet Evergarden: The Movie, A Silent Voice, Character Designer – Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid)
- Chief Animation Director: Nobuaki Maruki (Violet Evergarden: The Movie, A Silent Voice, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid)
- Color Design: Azumi Hata (Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S, Special Effects – Violet Evergarden: The Movie)
- Director of Photography: Kōhei Funamoto (Violet Evergarden: The Movie, A Silent Voice, Sound! Euphonium)
- Prop Setting: Hiroshi Karata (Free! The Final Stroke)
- Sound Director: Yota Tsuruoka (Violet Evergarden: The Movie, A Silent Voice, Sound! Euphonium)
- 3D Director: Rin Yamamoto (Violet Evergarden: The Movie, A Silent Voice, Sound! Euphonium)
- 3D Art: Mutsuo Shinohara (A Silent Voice, Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!, Sound! Euphonium)
Tsurune Season 2 Cast
Yūto Uemura will be reprising his role as Minato Narumiya in Tsurune Season 2. Others reprising their roles include Ryōta Suzuki as Ryohei Yamanouchi, Kaito Ishikawa as Kaito Onogi, Aoi Ichikawa as Seiya Takehaya, and Shōgo Yano as Nanao Kisaragi. New additional casts currently listed for Tsurune Season 2 include the following:
- Reiji Aragaki: Yuichiro Umehara (Goblin Slayer – Goblin Slayer, Gorou – Darling in the Franxx)
- Tōma Higuchi: Yūya Hirose (Yuuta Hibike – SSSS. Gridman, Alto Goldfilled – Vermeil in Gold)
- Eisuke Nikaidō: Jun Fukuyama (Lelouch – Code Geass, Koro-sensei – Assassination Classeoom)
- Kenyū Ootaguro: Youhei Azakami (Guel Jeturk – Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury)
- Kōshirō Fuwa: Takayuki Kondō (Tetsudou Hisakawa – Anohana)
- Shū Fujiwara: Kensho Ono (Tetsuya Kuroko – Kuroko’s Basketball, Ryuunosuke Akutagawa – Bungo Stray Dogs)
Tsurune Light Novels
The anime is an adaptation of the light novels created by Kotoko Ayano and illustrations by Chinatsu Morimoto. The first novel of the series went on to win a Special Judge Award at the 2016 Kyoto Animation Award Competition. The competition is an annual event held by the animation studio that’s been ongoing since 2010. Amateur and professional writers alike can submit their entries with the winners ending up having their work published under Kyoto Animation’s KA Esuma Bunko book label. Tsurune began publishing in 2016 under the book label and has since published a total of three volumes. The series has yet to be picked up by an English publisher.
The only series to ever win a grand prize at the Kyoto Animation Award Competition over the course of the past decade since the competition was announced is Violet Evergarden, which won the award in 2014. But other prize winners from previous years of the competition that received an anime adaptation such as Tsurune include, Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!, Beyond the Boundary, and Free! – Iwatobi Swim Club.
When Narumiya Minato joins Prefectural Kazemai High School, he is quickly invited to join the archery club by the club’s advisor, Tommy-sensei. His childhood friends Takehaya Seiya and Yamanouchi Ryohei swiftly agree to join, but Minato is hesitant at first. Because Minato is the rare student with experience in archery, Tommy-sensei orders him to give a demonstration, which Minato does… except his arrow doesn’t hit the target. It is revealed that Minato has developed a terrible dysfunction regarding archery.
Official anime series synopsis by Crunchyroll
Tsurune Season 2 is set to release on January 4, 2023, and will stream exclusively on HIDIVE.
Source: Official Twitter
