HIDIVE Brings The World Is Dancing to Anime Expo 2026 With an Episode 2 World Premiere

What HIDIVE announced

HIDIVE is taking The World Is Dancing to Anime Expo 2026. The streaming service, which holds the North American rights to the historical drama, will host the world premiere of the series' second episode at the convention, giving attendees the first look anywhere at what follows the opening installment. According to HIDIVE's announcement, the Episode 2 premiere is scheduled for Thursday, July 2, 2026, from 6:45 to 7:35 p.m. Pacific in Room 403AB.

A premiere built on a June 29 launch

The Anime Expo showcase lands just days after the series itself arrived. The World Is Dancing began streaming on HIDIVE on June 29 for subscribers in the United States and Canada, with availability extending to markets including Australia and New Zealand. HIDIVE's press materials note the series reached its international audience ahead of Japan, where it is set to air on Tokyo MX and KBS Kyoto on July 2. That makes the Anime Expo screening a continuation of a launch already in motion rather than a first reveal: the North American streaming debut happened on June 29, and Anime Expo gets the worldwide first look at Episode 2.

What the series is about

The World Is Dancing dramatizes the birth of Noh, the centuries-old Japanese stage art, through the early life of its real historical co-founder, Zeami Motokiyo. Our catalog describes a story that opens in 1374, as a boy named Oniyasha is born into a family of sarugaku theater performers and grows up haunted by a single question: why do people dance? When he witnesses a dance he feels is truly good, his path begins to turn toward the art he will one day define. The anime is adapted from the seinen manga by Kazuto Mihara.

Behind the production

Reporting from Anime News Network and other outlets credits the series to director Toshimasa Kuroyanagi, with series composition and script by Sawako Kawamitsu, character designs by Keigo Sasaki, and production at studio Cypic. Ahead of its debut, the project earned a Special Award at the Short Shorts Film Festival and Asia, one of the region's largest international short film festivals, a notable bit of recognition for a television series before it had aired.