For those craving a new Japanese gay movie before the end of the year, Netflix is about to deliver a terrific early Christmas present. Announced in late 2024, Netflix finally dropped the first trailer for 10Dance, a new live action movie with queer men in the lead! If this is the first you’ve heard of it, though… what is 10Dance? What does the title mean? What is it about? And how hot is it? Put on your dancing shoes, and we’ll lead you through this one.
Trailer
Scheduled to be released on Netflix on 18 December 2025, the film is directed by Keishi Otomo, who has previously adapted the Rurouni Kenshin live action movies. It stars Ryoma Takeuchi (Like a Dragon: Yakuza) and Keita Machida (Cherry Magic), and joined by Shiori Doi (Happiness Comes from Eating, Sleeping and Waiting) and Anna Ishii (Tokyo Love Story), you can view the trailer for the upcoming Netflix movie here:
Excited to know more? Waltz our way, and we’ll take you through the steps.
What Is 10Dance?
The upcoming 10Dance Netflix movie is based on an ongoing manga of the same name by Sato Inoue, which began publication in 2012. We are introduced to our protagonist, Shinya Suzuki, who finds himself both teaching and under the tutelage of Shinya Sugiki, as they attempt to improve one another in their differing ballroom dancing styles. Together, as they learn about dance, they learn about one another — and their own feelings.
Plot and Themes
The larger plot of 10Dance is that our rival dancers, Suzuki and Sugiki, dance different schools of ballroom: Suzuki is a master of Latin ballroom, while Sugiki is a standard professional. Suzuki is a national champion, while Sugiki has more worldwide acclaim, but has not yet become number one globally.
After one Japanese national championship, Sugiki approaches him with an unusual request: he will teach Suzuki standard ballroom, if he can be taught Latin in return, to compete in the 10 Dance competition. We’ll go into slightly more detail on why this is important and impressive shortly. As the story proceeds, the pair grow closer and stronger together.
Ballroom Dance Culture
One thing that may elude those coming into the story for the first time is that, as there are five different dances for both standard ballroom (Waltz, Tango, Viennese Waltz, Foxtrot, and Quickstep) and Latin ballroom (Cha Cha, Samba, Rumba, Pasodoble, and Jive) that have significantly different movements and philosophies behind them, the two styles never compete against one another… except in 10 Dance.
The 10 Dance competition requires the dancers to dance each one of the varieties in both standard and Latin, over four consecutive rounds, all in one day of competition, meaning a total of 40 dances in just a few hours. This makes it a contest of stamina, as well as skill.
Rivals to Lovers…?
Due to this, Suzuki is initially reluctant to enter the contest or learn standard, but after mocking him for having no ambition beyond being a big fish in a small pond, Sugiki successfully ragebaits Suzuki into becoming partners, and they soon begin working one another hard (not like that — at least, not yet).
Sugiki, the standard chamption with poise and precision oozing from every pore, attempts to discipline the impulsivity of Suzuki’s energy into more controlled steps, a necessity Suzuki only understands when he takes the role of follower and finally understands what it is like for the lead to treat their partner like a princess.
Conversely, while Sugiki’s Latin steps are immaculate, his aura is totally off, and he needs Suzuki’s instruction to break him out of his buttoned-up and classically trained self-assuredness to tap into something deeper and more meaningful than just where to put his feet. This includes moving his hips, understanding how the back can influence the entirety of the body in one smooth movement, and looking with deep smoulder into his partner’s eyes.
Of course, because ballroom dance is conducted between a man and a woman professionally, as they make one another stronger in their respective styles, they are also building up a future 10 Dance opponent that they will have to face. There can only be one champion, after all. Who will it be?
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How 10Dance Fits Into Japan’s LGBTQ+ Media Landscape
With LGBTQ+ media becoming increasingly common in Japan, how does this new film distinguish itself from its peers, and what does it bring to the table?
Sports and Sensuality
Anyone who is a fan of Yuri on Ice should be excited for this movie. Just as the anime taught many of us about figure skating just as much as it drove us nuts as Yuri and Victor got so close we could taste it, so does the 10Dance manga educate the reader on the intricacies of ballroom dancing, and the differences between the two major schools. The tension between them is also off the charts out of the gate, and if this can be matched in the movie, any audience should have their pulse doing a Foxtrot.
Representation, Both Sexual and National
One thing to note is that, while this an LGBTQ+ movie, it might be fairer to say that, rather than gay, Suzuki seems to be bisexual — or at least, he has yet to understand the depths of his sexuality.
He pursues sexual relationships with women, though this tends to be more for the purposes of letting off steam, and has no romantic connections, save for dating his dance partner Aki Tajima for eight months as a youth. However, dancing as the follower to Sugiki, he is amazed to find how much he loves princess treatment, declaring, “I feel like I could pop out a dozen babies for you!”
The two characters also have interesting backgrounds when it comes to their nationalities. While both are Japanese citizens, Sugiki was raised in the UK, which is where he acquired the elegant yet arrogant attitude that Suzuki is trying to crack. Suzuki, conversely, grew up in Cuba after his parents separated, but chose to become a Japanese citizen and move to Japan once he became an adult.
While this may explain the differences between them with a somewhat stereotypical framing, it is nice to see Suzuki’s references to his Cuban upbringing, and how it influenced him, in a way that is not often seen in manga discussing people of Caribbean descent.
So after that Quickstep through the first volume of the manga, and the premise of the movie, we hope you’ll be excited for the premier of 10Dance next month. And, of course, when it is released, you can look forward to a review from your beloved JGG!
