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Fuyumi Soryo's Mars Shōjo Manga Gets New Live-Action TV Series
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The cover of the January 2016 issue of Kodansha's Bessatsu Friend magazine (cover pictured at right) announced on Saturday that Fuyumi Soryo's Mars shōjo manga is getting a new live-action TV series. The Mars ~Tada, Kimi wo Aishiteru! (Mars ~But, I Love You~) series will premiere on January 24 and it will air on NTV on Saturdays from 12:55 a.m. to 1:25 a.m.
The series will star Kis-My-Ft2 member Taisuke Fujigaya (Nobunaga Concerto's Inuchiyo Maeda, Kamen Teacher's Gota Araki) as Rei Kashino and Masataka Kubota (Death Note TV series' Light) as Masao Kirishima.
Soryo (ES, Cesare) published the 15-volume series in Bessatsu Friend from 1996-2000. Soryo also penned a one-volume Mars Gaiden prequel manga. The manga series has more than 5 million copies in print. Tokyopop published all 15 volumes of the manga and the Mars Gaiden prequel in 2002-2004.
The manga revolves around Kira and Rei, two high school students. Kira is an extremely introverted artist, and Rei is an outgoing playboy with a frightening violent side. The two start a friendship and eventually a romance after Rei sees a drawing that Kira drew on the back of a map she gave him. However, both Kira and Rei are hiding troubled pasts, and through their relationship they confront their past demons. Masao, a student at Kira and Rei's school, has a connection to Rei's violent past. He enters Kira and Rei's lives to try to force Rei to return to the person he used to be.
The manga received the Taiwanese Mars [2004] live-action TV series adaptation that aired in 2004-2005. The adaptation starred Vic Zhou and Barbie Hsu.
