Prince of Stride

Plot

The series follows Nana Sakurai, a first-year Hōnan Academy student who joins her school's Stride club after watching a video two years earlier with classmates Takeru Fujiwara and Riku Yagami. The club had been inactive for two years following a violent incident, so they recruit six members to re-establish the team. Nana becomes the relationer and manager. Their goal is to win Eastern Japan's top Stride competition, the End of Summer, while developing friendship with Saisei Academy's stride club, also an idol group called Galaxy Standard.

Characters

Before the series, Hōnan's Stride club was popular until an accident reduced its membership, causing all remaining members to be automatically entered into the Shogi club. In the visual novel, all Hōnan Stride club members except Ayumu and Yujiro serve as Nana's love interests. Nana Sakurai is the player character in the visual novel and the anime protagonist. She moved alone from Hokkaido to Tokyo and transferred to Hōnan Academy because she admired the old Stride team.

She becomes the club's relationer and manager. Her father is known as the King of Stride, so she is unofficially called the Princess of Stride. Riku Yagami is a cheerful freshman who befriends Nana on their first meeting. He loves all sports except Kabbadi and wishes to join every sports club.

His family runs a bakery. He felt overshadowed by his older brother Tomoe, who was a better runner, and avoided Stride until meeting Nana. In the visual novel, he is a love interest. Takeru Fujiwara is cool and stoic, interested only in Stride.

He was a famous Stride runner in middle school. He wears frameless glasses but uses contacts during practice. He feels people's legs to determine talent, which creeps them out. He cannot swim or sing.

He conflicts with his father over pursuing his dream, but convinces him thanks to Nana. In the visual novel, he is a love interest.

Media

A light novel adaptation was published by Kadokawa, known for publishing Bang Dream! print media. It was called a Visual Novel due to many illustrations. It ran from November 22, 2012, to August 21, 2017. The otome game was announced at Dengeki game festival 2014.

Initially set for July 9, 2015, it was delayed to July 30, 2015, and is exclusive to the PlayStation Vita. The limited edition included a drama CD and booklet. The game follows the novel's storyline with added romance elements; all Hōnan runners except Ayumu are love interests, plus Reiji Suwa from Saisei. The anime, titled Prince of Stride: Alternative, aired from January 5, 2016, to March 22, 2016.

Its opening theme is Strider's High by OxT, and the ending theme is Be My Steady by Galaxy Standard, a unit of Saisei Academy voice actors. Funimation licensed the anime for subtitled and dubbed streaming. The anime has a different storyline from the novel, with Riku as protagonist. Episodes are numbered by Step.

A five-episode stage play, Prince of Stride THE LIVE STAGE, was announced at Dengeki Spring festival 2016, featuring actors trained in parkour. The first four episodes adapt the novel; episode 5 is an original story set one year after the end of summer 2017, involving a mysterious man named Isamu Isurugi who creates a Stride team to compete in America.