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Isobe Isobee Monogatari Anime Shorts Premiere on December 12
posted on by Kyle Hallmark
The first 2016 issue of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine (cover pictured at right) announced on Monday that the anime series based on Ryō Nakama's Isobe Isobee Monogatari ~Ukiyo wa Tsurai yo~ (Chronicle of Isobe -The Life Is Hard-) manga will premiere online on December 12.
The issue also revealed that viewers will be able to watch the anime on the Japanese video streaming services GYAO! and dTV.
Additionally, Japanese entertainment news website Oricon revealed on Thursday that the cast of the anime will each play multiple roles in addition to their main roles. The cast of the anime is as follows:
- Daiki Yamashita as Isobee Isobe
- Ayumu Murase as Jou Nakajima, Dog, and Ienobu
- Chiaki Takahashi as Mother, Dango (sweet dumpling) shop girl, and Iemitsu
- Takashi Matsuyama as Gennai Hiraga, Ieyoshi, and Teacher
- Raikō Sakamoto as Narrator, Daihachi Shiga, Ieyasu Tokugawa, and Yoshinobu
A previous issue of Weekly Shounen Jump magazine described the anime as a "mame anime" (bean anime) or "manime" for short. The issue explained that a "mame anime" is a short anime of approximately 30 seconds in length, and stated: "You can start watching it from any episode."
Mankyū (Tono to Issho, Fist of the North Star: Strawberry Flavor, Donyatsu, PUCHIM@S) is directing the anime. This year's Jump Special Anime Festa showed an advanced screening of the anime.
A stage play adaptation of the manga will premiere in spring 2016. The play will star Takuya Inoue as Isobee Isobe and Yoshihiro Nakayama as Mother. Kenichi Suemitsu is writing the scripts and directing the play, and Shunsuke Wada is in charge of the music.
Nakama originally published the manga as a one-shot, then he launched the serialized version of the manga in Weekly Shonen Jump in October 2013. Shueisha describes the manga as follows:
A loser samurai—Isobee, who lives in any way a dawdling, slacking life, takes action (sort of) in the city of Edo. Weekly Shonen Jump's gone mad with a new style Ukiyoe Gag Manga!!
Shueisha published the manga's eighth compiled volume on October 3.
The series inspired a four-episode series of online Flash anime shorts that premiered in December 2013.
