Aoki Denshō Welsh & Shedar premieres on 2 October

Aoki Denshō Welsh & Shedar has a broadcast date. The original television anime from the French company Ankama premieres on Tokyo MX on 2 October at 9:25 p.m. JST, and its official site has opened with the key visual, the two leads and the full staff lineup.

What is *Aoki Denshō Welsh & Shedar* about?

Two boys from opposite ends of the world they live in. Welsh is a 16-year-old from Broccoli village who is good at cooking; Shedar is a 16-year-old prince of Bonta, the greatest country of the realm and the one destined to become its king. Their paths cross when they set out to stop a tyrant's plot to conquer everything, which is the sort of premise that either sings or sinks on how the two leads are written.

Who is in the cast?

Rikuya Yasuda voices Welsh and Yūki Kaji voices Shedar. Kaji is the bigger name of the two, with a long list of leads behind him, and pairing him against a relative newcomer in the hero role is the kind of casting that tells you where the show expects its energy to come from. Only the two principals have been announced so far.

Who is making *Aoki Denshō Welsh & Shedar*?

Studio Massket is animating, with Naoki Horiuchi directing after episode-director work on the second season of Kingdom, Black Clover and Vivy -Fluorite Eye's Song-. Saori Nakashiki handles character design and is one of three chief animation directors alongside Yoshiaki Tsubata and Yuki Ikeda; Eri Suzuki is the colour key artist and Studio Massket also produces the background art. Lucas Cisterne is on art setting, Jun Watanabe directs sound at TO Books, and Pierre-Jean Beaudoin and Jose Pavli compose the music. Tot is credited with the original work, the scripts and the series story outline, with Kenichi Yamashita writing the series scripts for the Japanese version.

Why is a French company making a Japanese anime?

Ankama is an independent French entertainment and digital creation group, best known for the DOFUS tactical MMO that launched in 2004, and it has form with Japanese comics: it published Atsushi Kaneko's SOIL and Suguro Chayamachi's Togainu no Chi in French. What makes this one different from the usual licensing story is the direction of travel. Ankama is not importing an anime; it is the originator of an original series that is being animated in Japan for a Japanese broadcast slot on Tokyo MX, which is a much rarer arrangement than a Western licence or a co-production credit on an existing property.

Where can I watch *Aoki Denshō Welsh & Shedar*?

In Japan, on Tokyo MX from 2 October at 9:25 p.m. JST. Outside Japan, nothing has been announced: no streamer, no simulcast and no subtitle or dub details have been published, so treat any availability claim you see elsewhere as unconfirmed until Ankama or a platform says otherwise.

Our opinion

The interesting thing about this announcement is what it says about who gets to start an anime. Ankama has spent two decades building its own animated universe around DOFUS and its spin-offs, and the experience of running a serialised show on its own schedule shows in a decision like this: rather than buying into an existing manga, it is originating the series and hiring a Japanese studio to make it. The slot is the part that gives us pause. Tokyo MX at 9:25 p.m. is a respectable berth with a real audience, but it is not a flagship push, and a show with no announced streamer is one that overseas viewers may struggle to find at all — which is a strange position for a title whose origin story is inherently international. If Ankama wants the Welsh and Shedar bet to pay off outside Japan, the streaming announcement matters more than the key visual does, and it has not arrived yet.