Inexpressive Kashiwada and Expressive Oota anime announced for production

Friday, March 14, 2025, saw NBC Universal announce that a television Inexpressive Kashiwada and Expressive Oota anime series was currently in production. The series will adapt mangaka Fuyu Azuma’s original web manga series of the same name. The news was announced alongside the reveal of a teaser trailer and key visual for the series.

The starring cast for the Inexpressive Kashiwada and Expressive Oota anime was also revealed alongside this information, as well as several staff members and the animation studio. What fans don’t currently have is a release date or window for the series, which will likely be revealed in the coming months, given what’s covered in this latest announcement.

Inexpressive Kashiwada and Expressive Oota anime casts Tokyo Revengers’ Takuya Yamamoto and more

The Inexpressive Kashiwada and Expressive Oota anime stars Akane Fujita as Kashiwada-san, Kyouhei Natsume as Ota-kun, Yuya Hirose as Tadakoro-kun, and Sohei Horikane as Sata-kun. Their most recognizable roles are likely as A Certain Scientific Railgun’s Rita Iizumi, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime’s Equix, Tokyo Revengers’ Takuya Yamamoto, and Aoashi’s Mitsuya, respectively.

Tomohiro Kamitani is directing the series at STUDIO POLON, with Michiko Yokote overseeing the series scripts and Naotto Nakamura as the character designer and chief animation director. Yukari Hashimoto and Tetsuya Shitara are composing the music. Additional staff members for the series include:

Background art: Maho Takahashi
Art director: Scott MacDonald
Color design: Haremi Miyagawa
Director of photography: Yomogiko Murano
CG director: Daisuke Shima
Editing: Akane Shiraishi
Sound director: Yukio Nagasaki

As mentioned above, the series began streaming a promotional video alongside the news of its production. The trailer highlights the series’ starring cast members and their respective characters, with special focus on the titular pair. The two characters are also the sole focus of the key visual, which sees them walking through a field or park. In addition to these promotional materials, series creator and mangaka Fuyu Azuma drew a celebratory illustration.

The Inexpressive Kashiwada and Expressive Oota anime will adapt Azuma’s original manga series of the same name. The manga began serialization on Niconico Seiga’s Dra Dra Sharp# website from June 22, 2018, to June 9, 2023. The manga was collected into 10 compilation volumes, none of which are currently available in English. Kadokawa releases the manga digitally in English, and describes its story:

“Kashiwada is a girl who never shows emotions on her face. Oota always tries to surprise her...but never succeeds.

Kashiwada and Oota are classmates at a junior high school.

Oota is always thinking of pranks to surprise Kashiwada, but he always fails. Kashiwada likes to look at Oota, for he shows his emotions on his face too much. They look like opposite type of people, but they both care about each other.

"Look, Oota is up to something..." Other classmates love to see the unique relationship between them.

A heart-warming love comedy which takes place in an ordinary junior high school in Japan.”

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Joseph has been working as an anime content specialist for Sportskeeda since the past 2.5 years. Primarily covering his core genre, he also contributes to popular culture writing news stories and cult classic features on older series.

Joseph holds a Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Delaware, United States. His love of anime, combined with his background in literature, influenced his interest in engaging readers through the written word. He maintains complete accuracy in his content by verifying each and every piece of information regardless of how long it takes, and ensure that the output is impartial and free of bias.

Chainsaw Man, One Piece, Berserk, Undead Unluck, Re:ZERO, Tower of God, Jujutsu Kaisen, Inuyasha, and Fire Punch are some of Joseph’s favorite animanga. His exposure to 4kids' Sonic X series, One Piece, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Dragon Ball Z on Toonami fueled his enthusiasm for the medium.

When not dissecting anime plots, Joseph likes to cook, play games, work on cars, browse new music, and watch pro wrestling, especially AEW. He also enjoys ocean-based activities - beach trips, fishing, swimming and watersports.

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Edited by Joseph Brogan