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Pon no Michi TV Anime Reveals January 5 Debut, Character Video for Hanaeru

The official website for the original mahjong anime Pon no Michi (The Way of Pon) revealed on Friday that the anime will debut on January 5. The website also began streaming a character video for Haneru Emi.

The anime stars:

• Kaori Maeda as Nashiko Jippensha
• Iori Saeki as Pai Kawahigashi
• Shion Wakayama as Izumi Tokutomi
• Yui Kondou as Riche Hayashi
• Akio Ōtsuka as Mahjong spirit character, Chōnbo
• Hibiku Yamamura as Haneru Emi

The anime is set in Hiroshima Prefecture's Onomichi City, where a high school student Nashiko Jippensha was kicked out of her house. Without a place to play with her friends, she learns that the mahjong parlor that her father used to run is now vacant. She fixes the mahjong parlor and turns it into a place where she and her friends can have fun, cook, have tea, and sometimes play mahjong.

IIS-P is credited for the original story. Tatsuma Minamikawa (Fire Force, Fairy Tail: Dragon Cry) is directing and writing the anime's scripts at OLM. Negi Haruba (The Quintessential Quintuplets original creator) is drafting the original character designs, and Kenji Ōta (key animation, Pokémon XY) is adapting the designs for animation. Yūko Takahashi, Takuma Sogi, hisakuni, Rico Ohashi, Kanji Eguchi, and Shari are composing the music. Former Nogizaka46 idol group member and current professional mahjong player Kana Nakada feat. Pon no Michi All Stars is performing the opening theme song "Ponpopopon."

Tsukasa Unohana (Anima Yell!) launched a manga adaptation of the anime in Kodansha's Nakayoshi magazine on September 1.

Sources: Pon no Michi anime's website, Comic Natalie