Hand Shakers TV Anime Reveals Character Designs, Cast Roles

The official website of Hand Shakers — the original anime project with animation studio GoHands, production company Frontier Works, and publisher Kadokawa — unveiled the character designs for Team Shadow, Sword, and Chain, and also revealed the roles for some of the show's previously revealed cast members on Friday.

The cast, with the character designs, include:

Team Gear: Sōma Saitō as Tazuna (left) and Sumire Morohoshi as Koyori (right)

Team Card: Ai Kayano as Riri (left) and Ayumu Murase as Masaru (right)

Team Shadow: Sumire Uesaka as Chizuru (left) and Kaito Ishikawa as Hayate (right)

Team Sword: Mikako Komatsu as Kodama (left) and Tomokazu Sugita as Hibiki (right)

Team Chain: Jun Fukuyama as Break (left) and Yōko Hikasa as Bind (right)

Showtaro Morikubo as Makihara

Other cast members with as-yet unannounced roles include Shintarō Asanuma, Yūsuke Kobayashi, Satomi Satou, Risa Taneda, Daisuke Namikawa, Sora Amamiya, Kenjiro Tsuda, Ai Kakuma, and Saori Hayami.

The anime will premiere in January 2017. GoHands is in charge of the original planning, and GOON TRAX is composing the music. GoHands, Frontier Works, and Kadokawa are all credited with the original work.

The tagline on the key visual on the show's website reads, "protect it, with these hands." The key visual depicts Osaka's famous Dōtonboribashi bridge.

Frontier Works previously streamed a promotional video for the anime last month.

The anime takes place in Osaka in "AD20XX," and revolves around the Hand Shakers — partners who can summon "Nimrodes," weapons born from their deep psyche by joining hands. In order to grant the pair's wish, the Hand Shakers compete with and fight other Hand Shaker pairs. The top pair will then meet and challenge "God."

The English text on the anime title logo reads:
They, the receivers of the Revelation of Babel. They, the challengers to God.
They, who inevitably throw themselves into battle with their partners. What does God want from them?
And did they want powers exceeding that of Gods? The chosen ones, their souls linked,
join hand and hand for the Ziggurat where the fighting shall ensue.

The anime is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the ANIMATE chain of anime character goods stores.​