Hikaru no Go Manga Heads to the Stage in New Play Adaptation

Writer Yumi Hotta and illustrator Takeshi Obata (Death Note) serialized their Hikaru no Go manga in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1998 to 2003, previously inspiring a TV anime adaptation. Now its next stop is the stage with the reveal of Utaemaki ‘Hikaru no Go’ Jyo no Itte (Picture Scroll of Songs ‘Hikaru no Go’ The First Move, a play adaptation with musical elements incorporated.

The Hikaru no Go play is set to be performed at Tokyo’s Sunshine Theater from July 5-14, 2024. Nobuhiro Mouri (Durarara! stage plays, Black Butler musicals) is writing, directing, and providing lyrics for the play. Shinnosuke Motoyama is in charge of choreography and staging, and Shunsuke Wada is on music.

Cast includes Yojiro Itokawa as Hikaru Shindo, Koji Kominami as Fujiwara no Sai, Tomoru Akazawa as Akira Toya, Teru Ikuta as Akari Fujisaki and Akio Hirose as Koyo Toya.

VIZ Media publishes the Hikaru no Go manga in English and describes it like so:

After stumbling across a haunted go board, Hikaru Shindo discovers that the spirit of a master player named Fujiwara-no-Sai has taken up residence in his consciousness. Sai awakens in Hikaru an untapped genius for the game, and soon the schoolboy is chasing his own dream—defeating the famed go prodigy Akira Toya!

Via Crunchyroll News