News
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Creator's 'Prison Break' Manga Inspires Stage Play
posted on by Egan Loo
"Jikei Shikkō-chū Datsugoku Shinkō-chū," the 1995 manga short story by JoJo's Bizarre Adventure creator Hirohiko Araki, is inspiring a stage play starring Mirai Moriyama. It will be the first stage production of any of Araki's works.
The suspense story follows a man (Moriyama) who has been handed a death sentence. He is sent to a prison with luxurious accomodations and furnishings comparable to a high-class home. Nevertheless, he tries to break out of the prison.
The play will run from November 20 to November 29 at the Galaxy Theatre (Tennōzu Ginga Gekijō) in Tokyo. The production then plans to tour the country at various locales starting in December.
Araki published the original manga in Shueisha's defunct Super Jump magazine in 1995. It became the first story in a 1999 collection of four short stories published under the same Jikei Shikkō-chū Datsugoku Shinkō-chū title. The collection also includes the short "Dolche ~Die Hard the Cat~," and the upcoming stage play incorporates story elements from that short. Araki commented on his first stage play adaptation, "There is an unpredictable sense of anticipation and amusement."
Moriyama previously starred in 2011's stage dance performance TeZukA about the life of manga and anime pioneer Osamu Tezuka. Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui directed TeZukA before teaming with Moriyama again for Pluto earlier this year. Moriyama studied abroad in Israel (as a cultural ambassador of Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs) from October 2013 to October 2014, and he previously went abroad to Belgium. (The Pluto play was his first job back at home after Israel.)
Moriyama also played Kakuta in the live-action films of Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys manga. He starred in lead roles in Saint Young Men (as Jesus), Moteki, and Socrates in Love/Crying Out Love in the Center of the World, and he acted in Rookies.
Up-and-coming creator Nei Hasegawa is drafting, directing, choreographing, and overseeing the production company Fujiyama Annette on the new play. Hasegawa and Moriyama had previously collaborated on the 2010 music video "Yoake no Beat" for Fujifabric.
Source: Sports Hochi
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history