The official website for the original mahjong anime Pon no Michi (The Way of Pon) revealed on Friday that Hibiku Yamamura will play Haneru Emi, a high school girl who takes mahjong very seriously. The website also revealed the new key visual of the anime:
© IIS-P／ぽんのみち製作委員会
Hibiku Yamamura as Haneru Emi 
© IIS-P
The anime’s main cast includes:
Kaori Maeda as Nashiko Jippensha 
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Iori Saeki as Pai Kawahigashi 
© IIS-P／ぽんのみち製作委員会
Shion Wakayama as Izumi Tokutomi 
© IIS-P／ぽんのみち製作委員会
Yui Kondou as Riche Hayashi 
© IIS-P／ぽんのみち製作委員会
Akio Ōtsuka as the mahjong spirit character, Chonbo 
© IIS-P／ぽんのみち製作委員会
© IIS-P
The anime will premiere in January 2024 in the “Animeism” programming block on TBS, MBS and BS-TBS.
The anime is set in Onomichi city of Hiroshima Prefecture, where a high school student Nashiko Jippensha is kicked out of her house. With nowhere to play with her friends, she learns that the mahjong shop her father once ran is now vacant. She renovated the mahjong shop and turned it into a place where she and her friends could have fun, cook, drink 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 at OLM. Negi Haruba (original creator of The Quintessential Quintuplets) is drafting the original character designs, and Kenji Ōta (lead animator, Pokémon XY) is adapting the designs for the animation.
Other employees include:
Tsukasa Unohana (Anima Yell!) launched a manga adaptation of the anime in Kodansha’s Nakayoshi magazine on Friday.
Source: Pon No Michi anime website, Natalie Manga
