Osamu Tezuka’s Apollo’s Song Manga Gets Japanese Live-Action Series

Japanese TV network MBS has officially announced that it will launch a new late night time slot next month specifically focused on new Japanese drama series in Dramaism, and to launch the time slot, the first series to premiere will be a live action adaptation of manga legend Osamu Tezuka’s Apollo’s Song manga.

The series will feature Japanese vocalist Shori Sato of timelesz, otherwise known the rebranded incarnation of Japanese boy band SEXY ZONE and actress Akari Takaishi sharing lead billing.

The live-action drama will be reinterpret the manga previously serialized in Shonen Gahosha’s Weekly Shonen King magazine in modern fashion, by having Sato play the role of Shogo Chikaishi, a young adult who lives his life taking advantage of women being unable to feel any sort of love and affection for them after being traumatized by his mother as a child and being made to feel pain anytime he witnesses acts of love.

Takaishi will play the role of Shogo’s childhood friend, who works at a bar with dreams of becoming a famous singer when a chance reunion with Shogo by rekindling their close relationship leads to her death, and Shogo being cursed by the goddess Athena, who appears before him in a dream and curses him with constant reincarnation as punishment, snatching love and affection from him at every turn.

The series will premiere next month on February 18 across MBS and TBS affiliated stations across Japan. Apollo’s Song was previously published in English by Vertical Inc. in 2010.

Sources: Comic Natalie