A live-action film adaptation of Hidenori Hara's Hoshi no Furumachi - When You Wish Upon a Star coming-of-age manga has been green-lit, and the producers are now holding open auditions for the cast. Hara drew the manga in Shogakukan's Weekly Young Sunday magazine from 2006 to 2008, and seven compiled book volumes have been published.
The love story is set in Himishi City in the central Japanese prefecture of Toyama, and the final auditions and the actual filming will be done in the local area. The main character, Kōtarō Tsutsumi, is unable to get into a Tokyo prep school, so he ends up transferring to a high school in Himishi where he has relatives. Through the various encounters with the locals — in particular, a high school classmate and girl next door named Nagisa Ichinose — his life is slowly but inexorably turned around for the better.
Hara received an award in the 33rd Shogakukan Manga Awards for his Just Meet and Fuyu Monogatari manga. He drew one of the manga adaptations of the Train Man: Densha Otoko story that Viz Media published in North America from 2006 to 2007.
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Author Shoji Gatoh revealed in a Tuesday blog entry that he is now writing the final full-length volume of his Full Metal Panic! high school action comedy light novels. He anticipates that it will be released this spring. Gatoh has not ruled out writing more Full Metal Panic! short stories; in fact, Fujimi Shobo's Dragon Magazine will publish a new Full Metal Panic! short story, set during the characters' second high school year, on January 20 to mark its 300th issue.
The story of Full Metal Panic! centers around a brusque young sergeant named Sousuke Sagara who must protect an assertive high school girl named Kaname Chidori by masquerading (somewhat unsuccessfully) as a high school student himself. Shikidouji illustrated the original novels that Tokyopop published.
The Hollywood Reporter newspaper revealed Mandalay Pictures' acquisition of the live-action film rights to the story last April. Although the newspaper listed Zac Efron's possible involvement, the actor downplayed the project's chances. ADV Manga released both the first manga adaptation from Retsu Tateo and Full Metal Panic: Overload! manga spinoff from Tomohiro Nagai in North America. ADV Films and Funimation have split the North American DVD releases of the three television anime series between the two of them.
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The manga publisher Yen Press has announced on Friday that it will adapt Cecily von Ziegesar's Gossip Girl series of high school novels into graphic novel form. The novels center around the drama between Blair, Vanessa, and the other girls of an elite New York City private high school. However, Korean artist Baek Hye-Kyung (Bring it On, Happy Spider, Chiro) will be drawing new stories instead of directly adapting the 13 existing novels. Baek's Gossip Girl: For Your Eyes Only work will appear Yen Press' monthly manga anthology, Yen Plus, starting in the January 2010 issue.
The original novels have been adapted into a live-action television series that is now in its third season on The CW network. According to Yen Press, Baek is already "a huge fan" of von Ziegesar's novels.
Yen Press and another Korean artist, Narae Lee, have been adapting Scott Patterson's Maximum Ride novel series since last year. Another Korean artist, Seung-Hui Kye (Recast), is adapting Patterson's Daniel X science fiction novel series. Both of these novel series have been optioned for film adaptations. Yen Press is publishing Takahiro Arai's Japanese manga adaptation of Darren Shan's Cirque du Freak novels and has revealed plans for Korean artist Young Kim's adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight novels.
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Insect Detective Yoshida Yoshimi Manga Gets Live-Action Film
Jumat, 13 November 2009 | Label: Manga, Yoshida Yoshimi
This year's 50th issue of Kodansha's Morning magazine has announced on Thursday that a live-action film adaptation of Aozora-Daichi's Insect Detective Yoshida Yoshimi (Konchū Tantei Yoshida Yoshimi) gag manga has been green-lit for release next year. Tokyo Zombie director and Ichi the Killer scriptwriter Sakichi Sato is directing, and he is reuniting with his Tokyo Zombie star Shō Aikawa for this film. (Aikawa is pictured below in the magazine's announcement, which parodies Japanese tabloids with its attention-grabbing layout.)
In this "nonsensical gag" comedy, Yoshimi Yoshida is called the "Insect Detective" since he can communicate with just about any creature. Together with Mugi (a dog with the intelligence of a third-grader) and Piitan (a foul-mouthed parrot), Yoshida takes on cases related to insects and other creatures.
The manga won the Tetsuya Chiba Prize in 2003, and it is serialized on an irregular schedule in Morning and Morning 2 magazines. The North American distributor Anchor Bay released Sato's live-action film adaptation of Yūsaku Hanakuma's Tokyo Zombie horror comedy manga on DVD on April 1. (Last Gasp Publishing released the original Tokyo Zombie manga in North America last year. ) Besides Tokyo Zombie, Aikawa appeared in the live-action versions of the Zebraman and Kurosagi manga.
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This year's 18th issue of Kodansha' Bessatsu Friend magazine has announced on Friday that a television drama series based on Tomoko Hayakawa's The Wallflower (Yamato Nadeshiko Shichihenge) manga has been green-lit for a January premiere. The story follows four teenaged "pretty boys" who are invited to stay at a posh mansion, free of charge—provided they can transform the owner's standoffish, weird niece into a proper young lady. More details about the drama version will be published in future issues of Bessatsu Friend.
The manga has been running in Bessatsu Friend since 2000, and 24 compiled book volumes have been published so far. Del Rey will publish the 22nd volume in North America next January. The story has already been adapted into a 2006-2007 25-episode television anime series, which ADV Films released on DVD.
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Crayon Shin-chan Manga to Continue until February
Jumat, 06 November 2009 | Label: Crayon Shin Chan, Manga
The December issue of Futabasha's Monthly Manga Town magazine has announced on Thursday that the magazine will continue running new installments of the late Yoshito Usui's Crayon Shin-chan comedy manga until the March issue, which will ship on February 5, 2010. Authorities determined that Usui died from injuries sustained from a fall at Arafune mountain on September 11.
The magazine had planned to end Crayon Shin-chan this month with the last of two installments that Usui had submitted before his passing. However, several new manuscript pages were discovered, so the magazine's editorial department decided to extend the manga's run by three months.
Crayon Shin-chan follows the exploits of Shinnosuke Nohara, a mischievous (fictional) kindergartner in Usui's own hometown of Kasukabe. Usui launched the manga in Futabasha's Weekly Manga Action magazine in August 1990, and he continued to work on the series after moving it to Monthly Manga Town and other Futabasha magazines. Shin'ei Doga has been adapting it into a top-5-rated television anime series since 1992, and the television series has itself inspired 17 anime films with the 18th slated for next spring.
Hiroshi Hayakawa, president of the TV Asahi network, said at a September press conference that his company aims to continue airing the Crayon Shin-chan anime after Usui's passing. The first new episodes began airing in October 16. CMX Manga has been releasing the original manga in English in North America. Funimation has been adapting the television anime into dubbed English, and America's Adult Swim network used to run episodes every Sunday morning.
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