Project No.9

Project No.9 is a Japanese animation studio established in May 2009. Its productions notably include light-novel and manga adaptations. One of its earliest series was Ro-Kyu-Bu! SS (2013), the second television adaptation of the basketball-themed light-novel series written by Sagu Aoyama and illustrated by Tinkle. The show follows Subaru Hasegawa coaching an elementary-school girls’ basketball team.

In 2018, the studio animated The Ryuo’s Work Is Never Done!, adapted from Shirow Shiratori’s light novels. Its protagonist, Yaichi Kuzuryu, is a teenage professional shogi titleholder whose life changes when nine-year-old Ai Hinatsuru asks to become his apprentice. Project No.9’s 2019 slate included Pastel Memories, set in a future Akihabara where otaku culture has been erased; CHOYOYU!: High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!, about seven gifted students transported to a medieval-style world; and Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! In the last of these, Adele von Ascham has asked for an ordinary reincarnated life, only to discover that “average” is calculated across humans, dragons, and other beings.

The studio produced Bottom-tier Character Tomozaki in 2021, adapting Yuki Yaku’s novels about expert gamer Fumiya Tomozaki, who considers real life an unwinnable game until fellow player Aoi Hinami challenges him to improve it. Its 2024 sequel, Bottom-tier Character Tomozaki 2nd Stage, continued that adaptation. Also in 2021 came Higehiro: After Being Rejected, I Shaved and Took in a High School Runaway, whose central relationship begins after office worker Yoshida meets runaway schoolgirl Sayu Ogiwara.

Project No.9 animated Love After World Domination in 2022. Based on the manga by Hiroshi Noda and Takahiro Wakamatsu, it turns a superhero-versus-villain premise into a secret romance between Fudo Aikawa of Gelato 5 and Desumi Magahara of the villainous Gekko organization. In 2023, it released The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten, adapting Saekisan’s novels: high-schooler Amane Fujimiya gradually becomes close to his exceptionally capable neighbor, Mahiru Shiina, after lending her an umbrella.

That year also brought The Dreaming Boy Is a Realist, from the novels by Okemaru, concerning Wataru Sajou’s altered behavior toward his crush, Aika Natsukawa. In 2024, Project No.9 animated Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included, a manga adaptation in which Shintaro Tokumitsu discovers the angel Towa living on his balcony, and Why Does Nobody Remember Me in This World?, adapted from Kei Sazane’s novels, where Kai Sakuragi awakens in a rewritten world that has forgotten him.