When Will Ayumu Make His Move?
Movies
Alternate Titles
それでも歩は寄せてくる
Sore Demo Ayumu wa Yosetekuru
Synopsis
Ayumu Tanaka is a beginner shogi player who falls in love with Urushi Yaotome at first sight and joins their school’s shogi club. He is determined to confess his feelings to her after he beats her at a match, but there’s one small problem: he sucks as shogi!
Background
When Will Ayumu Make His Move? started as a manga series written and illustrated by Soichiro Yamamoto that has been serialized in Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine manga magazine since March 2019. As of April 2022, 11 collected tankobon volumes have been published. The manga has been licensed for English release in North America by Kodansha USA, who will publish the sixth volume in July 2022.
A TV anime adaptation was announced in January 2021. It is being produced by SILVER LINK (Alice in Borderland, BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, So I'll Max Out My Defense, Death March to The Parallel World Rhapsody) and features Mirai Minato (Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya, The Greatest Demon Lord is Reborn as a Typical Nobody, Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World) as director, with Deko Akao (Arakawa Under the Bridge, Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?, The Genius Prince's Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt) handling series composition, Kazuya Hirata (Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei!, The Misfit of Demon King Academy, Shomin Sample) handling character designs and also credited as chief animation director, and Shun Narita (Ancient Girl's Frame, Noblesse, RoboMasters The Animated Series) composing the music. The anime’s opening theme song is "Kakehiki wa Poker Face" by Kana Hanazawa, and the ending theme song is "50 Centi" by Kanna Nakamura as her character Urushi Yaotome. The anime will premiere in Japan on July 7, 2022 on TBS.
Characters
Ayumu Tanaka (Voiced by: Yohei Azakami)
Ayumu is a first-year high school student and a beginner in the shogi club. He is in love with Urushi, a senior member of the club, and has vowed to confess to her once he beats her at the game. He has a poker face and doesn’t show his emotions easily, but he is always straight with Urushi, which makes her embarrassed.
Urushi Yaotome (Voiced by: Kanna Nakamura)
Urushi is a second-year high school student and the self-proclaimed captain of the shogi club. She struggles every day to try and get Ayumu to admit his feelings for her, which often makes him blush. Though a strong shogi player, she is weak against Ayumu’s offense.
Takeru Kakuryu (Voiced by: Tsubasa Gouden)
Takeru is a first-year high school student who is childhood friends with Ayumu and Sakurako and works on the library committee. He decides to join the shogi club at Ayumu’s request. Though he believes in being a manly man, he secretly has feelings for Sakurako.
Sakurako Mikage (Voiced by: Hina Yomiya)
Sakurako is a first-year high school student and member of the library committee. She is a shy girl who specializes in hypnosis and is childhood friends with Ayumu. She secretly supports Ayumu’s love but is clueless about love herself and completely unaware of Takeru’s feelings for her.
Rin Kagawa (Voiced by: Haruna Mikawa)
Rin was Ayumu’s underclassman in the kendo club during junior high. She is a gourmand and has a passion for food. She is a serious person with a strong desire to win and respects Ayumu for his stoic dedication to kendo.
Maki (Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa)
Maki is a second-year high school student who is classmates and good friends with Urushi. She likes to talk about romance and is always trying to get Urushi to talk about her love life, to her chagrin.
Music
Opening Theme Song: "Kakehiki wa Poker Face" by Kana Hanazawa
Ending Theme Song: "50 Centi" by Kanna Nakamura
Official Links
Staff
- Original Creator: Soichiro Yamamoto
- Director: Mirai Minato
- Series Composition: Deko Akao
- Character Design/Chief Animation Director: Kazuya Hirata
- Art Director: Hideto Nakahara
- Art Setting: Tomoyasu Fujise (Chiptune)
- Color design: Hayato Yoshida
- Director of Photography: Yutaro Kikuchi
- 3D Director: Tsutomu Ogasawara
- 2D Work: Susumu Kashiwabara, Yuko Shintani
- Editing: Yuji Kondo (REAL-T)
- Sound Director: Toru Kanegae
- Music: Shun Narita
- Animation Production: SILVER LINK