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GTO Creator's Battle School Manga Kamen Teacher Gets Stage Musical
posted on by Egan Loo
This year's 29th issue of Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump magazine is announcing on Thursday that a stage musical adaptation of Tohru Fujisawa's battle school manga Kamen Teacher has been green-lit. Yūki Tomotsune (stage versions of Blue Exorcist, The Prince of Tennis 2nd Season, Blazblue, Bakumatsu Rock, Yowapeda Inter High Arc The Winner) will play the title character.
The manga centers around Gōta Araki, a special instructor in the Kamen Teacher Program who gives problem schools a complete overhaul. When he dons a mask, Araki becomes "Kamen Teacher Hayato Jūmonji," a hero for justice. He brings light to troubled schools by putting down delinquents.
The play will run from September 16 to September 18 at the Umeda Arts Theater's Theater Drama City in Osaka, and then from September 30 to October 4 in Zepp Blue Theater Roppongi in Tokyo.
The manga ran in Weekly Young Jump from 2006 to 2007, and Shueisha published four volumes. Fujisawa launched a sequel called Kamen Teacher Black in Weekly Young Jump in April 2013, and ended it last year. A live-action television series starring Kis-My-Ft2 idol group member Taisuke Fujigaya premiered in Japan in July 2013, and the show inspired both a television special and a film.
Tokyopop and Vertical published Fujisawa's various GTO manga titles in North America, including GTO: The Early Years. The original manga inspired a television anime, as well as several live-action adaptations. Fujisawa launched the GTO: Paradise Lost manga spinoff in 2014, although it is now on hiatus until winter. Fujisawa launched the manga Oishii Kamishama in Shogakukan's Shonen Sunday magazine in September.
