An original sports anime you won’t want to miss.
An original high school basketball anime produced by Chinese LHL Culture and animated by HEART&SOUL will be released in China in February. Left-Hand Layup! or Zuo Shou Shang Lan was announced back in 2021 and is finally coming to fruition.
The story focuses on Xu Xing Ze, a passionate basketball player, as he navigates high school, love, and of course basketball. The most recent trailer was released three weeks ago, and the visuals are promising. The trailer features snippets of game play and training, not to mention the background music is very catchy.
In 2017, The King’s Avatar brought popularity to Chinese anime, and as an Esports Chinese anime, or donghua, it was unique from other Chinese anime. However, Left-Hand Layup! is tackling one of the most popular sports globally: basketball. Although this is the first anime from LHL Culture, they have released plenty of promotional materials to give viewers an idea of what to expect. Expect for the plot to be centered around sports and all the clichés that come with youthful drama.
Rumored to be the sole reason that LHL Culture was created, it’s hard to set expectations for the visuals of this anime. Usually, you can watch previous work put out by animation studios to determine if a new release will be your cup of tea. However, this donghua might be worth watching, even without knowing much about the creators. If LHL Culture really did come about just for this ambitious anime, they probably put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into making this well-received by the anime world.
LHL Culture announced that Left-Hand Layup! will stream in mainland China on Tencent Video in February. However, there are no details about where else the anime will be streaming outside of China. Hopefully, Crunchyroll or HIDIVE picks up the series soon so international anime fans won’t have to wait long to enjoy the show. Sports anime have been on the rise with shows like Blue Lock and Tsurune, so adding a basketball anime into the mix of 2023 releases seems like the perfect addition to the lineup.
