Prince of Stride
Prince of Stride is a Japanese multimedia series by ASCII Media Works. The project was unveiled in April 2012 in Dengeki Girl's Style. It spawned a light novel, as well as an otome game adaptation developed by Kadokawa Games and Vridge for the PlayStation Vita. An anime television series adaptation developed by Madhouse entitled Prince of Stride: Alternative aired from January 5, 2016, to March 22, 2016. A spin-off manga entitled Prince of Stride Galaxy Rush launched in November 2015 in Dengeki Maoh. The series is based around the fictional extreme sport of "stride", where teams of six run a relay race including parkour elements through a town.
Plot
The series revolves around the extreme sport "Stride", where a team of 5 runners and their information-giving "relationer" completes relay races that take place in towns. Nana Sakurai, a first-year Hōnan Academy high school student, decided to join her school's Stride club after she watched a "Best Stride Ever" video two years ago alongside her classmates Takeru Fujiwara and Riku Yagami. Upon learning the Hōnan Stride club has been inactive for two years following a violent incident, they decided try to re-establish the school's "Stride" team by recruiting 6 members. Both Takeru and Riku asked Nana to become a relationer as well as a manager. Their goal is to join other schools to compete and win Eastern Japan's top Stride competition, the "End of Summer" as well as developing a friendship with the Saisei Academy stride club, who are also an idol group called "Galaxy Standard".Characters
Hōnan (方南)
Prior to the series, Hōnan's Stride club used to be a popular club until an accident that decreased its popularity, making it so small that all of its members were automatically entered into the Shogi club. In the visual novel all of Hōnan's Stride club members serve as Nana's love interests.;Nana Sakurai
;Riku Yagami
;Takeru Fujiwara
;Hozumi Kohinata
;Heath Hasekura
;Kyōsuke Kuga
;Ayumu Kadowaki
;Yūjirō Dan
Saisei
Team name: Galaxy Standard, which is also an idol band, and is the first rival of Honan, having been matched up on their debut match.;Reiji Suwa
;Shizuma Mayuzumi
;Bantarō Chiyomatsu
;Tasuku Senoo
;Asuma Mayuzumi
;Kaede Okumura
Mihashi
;Kei Kamoda;Yū Kamoda
;Aoi Shima
;Hisato Harigaya
;Takeshi Eifuku
;Nobuhiko Nagatsuka
Ichijyōkan
;Yuri Himemiya;Shiki Dozono
;Kaoru Shishibara
;Kiyoto Washimi
;Arata Samejima
;Tetsu Hachiya
Kakyôin
;Tomoe Yagami;Amatsu Ida
;Tōya Natsunagi
;Nampei Aoba
;Hajime Izumino
;Ryō Izumino
;Joe Sakurai
Other
;Diane HasekuraMedia
Light novel
A light novel adaptation has been published by Kadokawa company, best known for publishing Bang Dream! print media. It was known as "Visual Novel". It was published on November 22, 2012, and ended on August 21, 2017.Video game
The otome game was announced during Dengeki game festival 2014. The game was initially released on July 9, 2015, but was later delayed to July 30, 2015. It is exclusive to the PlayStation Vita console. The limited version included a drama CD and a booklet.The game storyline follows the novel's storyline, but with romance elements added. All of Hōnan's runners are Nana's love interests. In addition to Hōnan, Reiji Suwa from Saisei also serves as Nana's love interest and is only from another school.
Anime
The anime's opening theme song is "Strider's High" by OxT. The anime's ending theme is "Be My Steady" by Galaxy Standard, a music unit composed of the voice actors from the anime's Saisei Academy Stride Club. Funimation has licensed the anime to stream the anime in both subtitled and dubbed versions.As the name implied, the anime adaptation will have different storyline instead of being adapted from the novel. Riku is the anime's protagonist, and it follows his story of joining stride club to defeat his brother.
Episode list
All episode are numbered by Step followed by the title of the episode.| No. | Official English title Original Japanese title | Original air date |
Stage play
During Dengeki Spring festival 2016, it was announced Prince of Stride would receive a five-episode stage play adaptation called Prince of Stride THE LIVE STAGE. The plays will feature actors trained in parkour, and they will run on stage and throughout the seating area while a wind effect blows through the audience.The first four episodes will adapt the novel story while episode 5 is an original story taking place one year after the end of summer 2017.
The episode 5 story depicted a mysterious man named Isamu Isurugi, who was Joe's rival in the past and created a Stride team to participate in America. He recruited students from different schools, both current and graduated stride members, including Yuri, Reiji, and Takeru. This created conflict, forcing Takeru to choose between pursuing his dream or staying with Riku and Nana. Upon learning of this, Reiji, Shizuma, Yuri, Toya, and Tomoe asked Joe to create his own team and challenge the Isamu team to a stride battle. Nana and Riku joined his stride team, fixing their strained friendship.