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Lychee Light Club Inspires Prequel, Music, Stage Play

The Lychee Light Club (Litchi Hikari Club) horror story by manga creator Usamaru Furuya (51 Ways to Save Her, Genkaku Picasso) is inspiring a prequel manga, a musical group, and a stage play. The original manga revolves around nine students at an all-boys school who create a god-like Lychee machine — that runs on lychee fruits — to seek out the beautiful women of the world. However, the machine eventually becomes self-aware "and is soon equally capable of measuring beauty and executing justice."

Furuya will launch a prequel manga series called Bokura no Hikari Club (Our Light Club) in March. The story will tell the hidden past of the boys who make up the light club. Although Furuya has not revealed the release format of the prequel, he indicated that people will be able to read it free of charge.

Hakuei, the vocalist of the rock band Penicillin (Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo, Shinseikiden Mars), has formed a new musical group that is named after the manga. The first song of the Lychee Light Club musical group, "Haikyō no Teiō" ("The Emperor of Ruins"), is already available as a standard ringtone and full-length ringtone in Japan. Hakuei, Furuya, and actor Norihisa Hiranuma formed a separate group to release picture books.

Finally, there will be a new stage play version of the manga. The cast and other details about the play will be announced on the "Litchi Hikari Club Secret Base," the official website for the manga. The site is already online as part of the ongoing "Lychee Year" campaign.

The Lychee Light Club manga itself was loosely inspired by an earlier play of the same name by Norimizu Ameya and the theatrical troupe Tokyo Grand Guignol. The manga ran in Ohta Publishing's Manga Erotics F magazine from 2005 to 2006. Vertical will publish the English version in North America this April.

Source: Comic Natalie