posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
MBS announced on Thursday that it is producing a live-action series adaptation of Osamu Tezuka‘s Apollo’s Song (Apollo no Uta) manga that will premiere on the “Dramaism” programming block on MBS and TBS on February 18. The live-action series will be a modern interpretation of the 1970 dark fantasy story.
The series stars timelesz idol group member Shōri Satō (live-action Haruchika – Haruta & Chika) as the protagonist Shōgo Chikaishi, a college student who loathes love due to a traumatic childhood with his mother. Akari Takaishi (The Colors Within, Baby Assassins, Demon Slayer stage play) plays Shōgo’s childhood friend Hiromi Watari who dreams of becoming a singer while working at a bar.
In the modern interpretation, Shōgo lives with a woman he doesn’t love and freeloads off her money. He causes Hiromi’s death, and a goddess curses him to be reborn over and over again and face unrequited love each time.
Ken Ninomiya (Chiwawa-chan, Tonkatsu DJ Agetarō live-action films) is directing the series, and is also penning the scripts. The company Geek Sight is producing the series.
Kodansha USA Publishing re-released the Apollo’s Song manga in 2022, and it describes the story:
Apollo’s Song follows the tragic journey of Shogo, a young man whose abusive childhood has instilled in him a loathing for love so profound he finds himself compelled to acts of violence when he is witness to any act of intimacy or affection whether by human or beast. His hate is such that the gods intervene, cursing Shogo to experience love throughout the ages ultimately to have it ripped from his heart every time. From the Nazi atrocities of World War II to a dystopian future of human cloning, Shogo loses his heart, in so doing, healing the psychological scars of his childhood hatred.
Master storyteller Osamu Tezuka‘s Apollo’s Song is a lyrical tour-de-force on the human spirit, the destruction of hate, and the triumph of love
Tezuka published the manga in Shonengahosha‘s Weekly Shonen King magazine in April to November 1970.
Sources: MBS, Comic Natalie
