Bushiroad Reveals Zero Rise Basketball Project With TV Anime, Stage Play

The "Cardfight!! Vanguard 15th Anniversary: Bushiroad New Year Announcements 2026" event announced on Monday that Bushiroad's ZERO RISE cross-media project will have a television anime, as well as a stage play on May 2-17 at the Hikōsen Theater in Tokyo. The project also presented its animation and character promotional videos, and announced its cast members  who will both perform in the stage play and voice the characters in the anime. 

Image via ZERO RISE project's X/Twitter account

©ZERO RISE project.

Image via ZERO RISE project's X/Twitter account

©ZERO RISE project.

The project's cast members are:

• UNFIXX

• Hiroki Sasamori as Madoka Kurogare
• Fukui Tomoya as Hagane Amadate (Date)
• Kai Ōtomo as Tsukasa Marindo (Merlin)

• KINGS+HOOT

• Hiroki Ishibashi as Daiki Sugawara (Blink)
• Takamichi Satō as Kagetora Tamura (Miracle)
• Yūsei Hiraga as Haruhi Niwa (Sunshine)

• RumbleWing[s]

• Ren Tahara as Tsubasa Hirai (York)
• Takumi Mano as Yuichiro Jinnai (Ujin)
• Yo Maejima as Issa Jinnai (Sajin)

• BLACKSPOT

• Shota Kawakami as Takeshi Hari (Ballista)
• Shota Takiyama (suit actor) as UNKNOWN A 
• Yūshi (suit actor) as UNKNOWN B

• Yūki Kimisawa as Hayato Jigen

Bushiroad president Takaaki Kidani is credited for the project's original concept, Yoshiki Watabe is credited for the series' original concept, and From Tokyo is credited for character designs.

Nobuhiro Mōri is directing the stage play and Ichidai Matsuda (ILCA) is writing the script.

ZERO RISE is the story about youths who have been expelled from or have given up on the basketball world for various reasons. In a world where the gap between the rich and the poor is widening, those with integrity are few and far between, and the battle for survival is fierce, these youths will struggle to seize a chance for another beginning in the underground street basketball league called "Zero Rise."

Sources: ZERO RISE project's website, Comic Natalie