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Haikyu! Theme Songs Performed by Spyair, Nico Touches the Walls

This year's 12th issue of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine is announcing on Monday that the bands SPYAIR and NICO TOUCHES THE WALLS are performing the opening and ending theme songs, respectively, for the Haikyu!! television anime series. SPYAIR (Gintama, Bleach, Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, Samurai Flamenco) is contributing the song "Imagination," while NICO TOUCHES THE WALLS (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Naruto Shippūden, C – Control – The Money and Soul of Possibility) performs "Tenchi Gaeshi."

The story of Haruichi Furudate's original manga follows Shōyō Hinata, who began playing volleyball after seeing an inspirational player nicknamed the "Small Giant" when he was in elementary school. Hinata suffers a crushing defeat in his first and last tournament in middle school at the hands of his rival Tobio Kageyama. So, Hinata joins Kurasuno High School's volleyball team, vowing revenge against Kageyama.

However, Kageyama is also on Kurasuno's team. The former rivals form a legendary combo with Hinata's mobility and Kageyama's precision ball-handling. Together, they take on the local tournaments and vow to meet Kurasuno's fated rival school in the nationals.

The main cast are:

• Ayumu Murase as Shōyō Hinata 
• Kaito Ishikawa as Tobio Kageyama 
• Miyu Irino as Kōshi Sugawara 
• Satoshi Hino as Daichi Sawamura 
• Yuu Hayashi as Ryūnosuke Tanaka 
• Yoshimasa Hosoya as Asahi Azumane 
• Nobuhiko Okamoto as Yū Nishinoya 
• Sōma Saitō as Tadashi Yamaguchi 
• Kōki Uchiyama as Kei Tsukishima 

The staff at Production I.G includes:

• Director: Susumu Mitsunaka 
• Series Composition: Taku Kishimoto 
• Script: Taku Kishimoto 
• Original creator: Haruichi Furudate 
• Character Design: Takahiro Kishida 
• Chief Animation Director: Takahiro Chiba 
• Sound Director: Hiromi Kikuta (Rakuonsha) 

Furudate first published a one-shot version of the manga in the Winter 2011 issue of Shueisha's Shonen Jump Next! magazine, and then ran another one-shot in the main Weekly Shonen Jump magazine later that year. In the following year, he launched the series version of the manga in Weekly Shonen Jump. Haikyu!! received a crossover story with Naoshi Komi's Nisekoi, another Weekly Shonen Jump manga that is inspiring a television anime.

The Haikyu!! anime will premiere on Japanese television in April.

[Via Yaraon!]

Image © Haruichi Furudate, Shueisha/Haikyuu!! Production Committee