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Tetsuya Chiba's Ashita no Joe Manga Gets Stage Play Adaptation
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Yogi Production announced on Sunday that Tetsuya Chiba and Asao Takamori's Ashita no Joe manga is getting a stage play adaptation by the Gekidan Megumi stage troupe.
The play will run from May 25-29 at the Sumida Park Studio Kura theater in Tokyo. Eiichi Yogi is directing the play, and Yuka Aiba is writing the script.
The play will star:
Otoya Shingū as Joe Yabuki
Syuusaku Fujiwara as Tohru Rikiishi
Jōtarō Watanabe as Danpei Tange
Maki Aizawa (KDash Stage) as Yōko Shiraki
Ashita no Joe revolves around an orphan named Joe Yabuki who rises from the Tokyo slums under the tutelage of a former boxer. Takamori and Chiba's original 1968-1973 manga is among the most critically acclaimed stories in Japanese popular culture, and Osamu Dezaki's television series added to the story's iconic status. The manga would later influence two generations of sports and shonen manga, including Hajime no Ippo (Fighting Spirit). A crucial twist in the Ashita no Joe television anime's plot made headlines in Japan as people marked the occasion with public ceremonies.
The manga inspired multiple TV anime series and anime films, and more recently a live-action film that opened in Japan in 2011 starring Tomohisa Yamashita.
Source: Comic Natalie
