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Live-Action Sachihiro One Room Series to Stream on AbemaTV Service
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
AbemaTV revealed on Friday that the live-action series adaptation of Hakuri's SACHIiro no One Room manga will stream on the service. The first episode will debut on July 8 late at night at 12:05 (effectively July 9 at 12:05 a.m.). AbemaTV also began streaming a promotional video for the announcement.
The series was cancelled on the Kanto region's TV Asahi amidst criticism that it portrays real-life kidnapping in a positive light. The show will still premiere on the Kansai region's ABC channel on July 8 as planned.
The manga and drama's story centers on a girl and her kidnapper. The kidnapper removes the girl from troubles in her former life and provides her with a taste of happiness. The girl starts to enjoy living with her kidnapper, and she vows to marry him one day.
In March 2016, a girl was abducted in the city of Asaka in in Saitama Prefecture and taken to Tokyo. Rumors have spread that the manga, which Hakuri began on Twitter in September 2016, was based on this incident. If it were made into a live-action series, the detractors claimed, it would be portraying the incident in a positive light and would be disrespectful for the actual parties involved.
TV Asahi's public relations department commented that it is shelving the show following another investigation into the matter. However, Osaka's ABC, which is producing the show, released a statement saying it does not believe the original work is modeled on or uses motifs from the real incident.
The drama stars Anna Yamada (right in images below) as Sachi and Shūhei Uesugi (left) as Older Brother. Other cast members include Hōka Kinoshita, Akiko Hinagata, Shin Shimizu, Mai Watanabe, Miyoko Akaza, Shima Ōnishi, Aoi Nono, and Saito Nagisa and Maika Sasaki from the idol group =LOVE.
Junki Tozuka (seen in image below) will play the character Katagiri-sensei in the drama. Katagiri-sensei is a teacher popular with his middle school students, but his normal appearance hides something underneath.
Rock band FLOW is performing the drama's theme song "Neiro" (Timbre).
The manga is serializing in Square Enix and pixiv's web manga magazine Gangan pixiv. Square Enix released the fourth compiled book volume on May 28, and the fifth volume is slated to ship this fall. The series won third place in pixiv and Nippon Shuppan Hanbai, Inc's Web Manga General Election last year.
