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Cromartie High School Creator's Office Comedy Manga Kachō Baka Ichidai Gets Live-Action Series
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
Cromartie High School manga creator Eiji Nonaka's Kachō Baka Ichidai (The Life on an Idiot Section Chief) is getting a live-action series that will premiere streaming on Hikari TV and dTV Channel on January 4. The series will then debut on television on BS12 TwellV on January 12.
The office comedy story centers on Kazuhiko Yagami, an assistant section chief at the electronics maker Matsushiba Denki. Yagami is a 33-year-old chief clerk in the company's product development planning section. One day, his boss suddenly calls him in for a promotion to the position of "assistant section chief representative deputy." Despite the dubious job title, Yagami shows zeal for his work. He faces a variety of challenges as he settles into his new role.
The series will star Matsuya Onoue as Kazuhiko Yagami. Additional cast members will include Ryō Kimura, Mariya Nagao, Shunya Itabashi, Isao Takeno, Bandō Hikosaburō VIII, and Sadanji Ichikawa.
The show will have 10 episodes and two additional spinoff episodes. Kentarō Moriya, Hiroki Murakami, and Keisuke Kondō are directing the series.
Nonaka's original manga ran from 1996 to 2000 in Kodansha's Mister Magazine, and Kodansha published seven compiled book volumes. The series will get a digital release in Japan on November 15 to mark the announcement of the live-action series.
Nonaka's Cromartie High School (Sakigake!! Cromartie Kōkō) manga serialized in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine from 2000 to 2006. The gag manga follows the antics of the students at a school notorious for its delinquents. The series inspired a "spinoff sequel" manga, titled Cromartie Kōkō Shokuinshitsu (Cromartie High School Staff Room), that launched in Kodansha's Magazine Pocket app in October 2018.
A.D. Vision's ADV Manga division published 12 of the 17 volumes in the Cromartie High School gag comedy manga in North America from 2005 to 2007. Its sibling ADV Films division released Production I.G's entire television anime series version in 2005, and Discotek rereleased the series in 2016. Media Blasters released Yuudai Yamaguchi's live-action film adaptation in theaters and on DVD in 2006.
Sources: Kachō Baka Ichidai live-action show's website, Comic Natalie
