The heart-warming slice-of-life manga Barakamon is back with a live-action TV drama adaptation! Announced in this year’s May issue of Square Enix’s Monthly Shonen Gangan magazine, the TV drama marks a return of the Barakamon manga series, which ends serialization four years and four months ago.
The manga by Satsuki Yoshino would also return for limited serialization, starting in the same issue published on April 12. The manga was featured on the May issue’s cover and the new chapter with a colored opening page.
Yoshino launched the Barakamon manga in Square Enix’s Gangan Online magazine in 2009. The manga also began running in Monthly Shonen Gangan in 2014. It ran for a total of nine years and 18 volumes. Barakamon also inspired a 12-episode anime series of the same name that premiered in July.
The series centers on Seishu Handa, a young professional calligrapher, who was sent off to a faraway Island in Kyushu after punching an elderly curator for criticizing his work. There, he meets the colorful villagers, interacts with them, and begins to find his own style.
The manga also has a spin-off prequel Handa-kun, which centers on the hilarious high school days of this calligraphy genius. The prequel manga started serialization in the November 2013 issue of Square Enix’s Monthly Shonen Gangan magazine. An anime television adaptation by Diomedéa aired in Japan between July and September 2016.
Though the cast of the live-action drama is yet to be revealed, it certainly raises curiosity about the casting of Handa and of course, the kawaii six-year-old Naru!