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Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! Manga Gets Live-Action Film Starring Nogizaka46 Idols

TOHO announced on Tuesday that Sumito Ōwara's Eizōken ni wa Te o Dasu na! (Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!) manga is inspiring a live-action film that will open in Japan next summer. Nogizaka46 idol group members Mizuki Yamashita, Asuka Saitō, and Minami Umezawa (top row, left to right in image below) will star in the film as the characters Tsubame Mizusaki, Midori Asakusa, and Sayaka Kanamori (bottom row, left to right). Tsutomu Hanabusa (live-action 3D Kanojo Real Girl, Kakegurui, Asahinagu) is directing the film.

The manga follows Midori, Tsubame, and Sayaka, an energetic trio of first-year high school girls who come together in the Eizouken (Video Research Club) to turn their anime dreams into a reality. Midori is nervous to create an anime alone. She meets Tsubame who appears to be a well-to-do girl but she really has artistic dreams of being an animator. Midori's best friend Sayaka has the financial sense to bring the project to fruition and joins the pair on their quest.

Ōwara launched Eizōken ni wa Te o Dasu na! in Shogakukan's Gekkan! Spirits magazine in 2016, and Shogakukan published the fourth compiled book on May 10. The manga was nominated for the 11th Manga Taisho awards last year, and it won the top Bros. Comic Award in 2017.

The manga is inspiring a television anime adaptation by Masaaki Yuasa and Science SARU that will premiere in January.

Students from the Nihon University College of Arts in Tokyo previously submitted proposals to animate a short based on the manga last year. Eight pairs were selected to make promotional videos, and the videos premiered at the college's Nichigo Festival 2018 event last November. Second-year students Chihiro Izumi and Minano Ōmori created the winning piece.

Source: Comic Natalie