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Yuki Kodama's Ao no Hana Utsuwa no Mori Manga Gets Live-Action Series

NHK announced on Tuesday that it is producing a live-action series of Yuki Kodama's Ao no Hana Utsuwa no Mori (Blue Flower, Forest of Vessels) manga that will premiere on NHK's "Yorudora" programming block this fall. forrmer SKE48 and Nogizaka46 idol Rena Matsui (Ultimate Otaku Teacher, seen below) will star in the series.

Yoshihiro Fukagawa is directing the series, with scripts by Yōko Izumisawa.

The manga takes place in Hasami, a town in Nagasaki prefecture famed for its pottery, and centers on Aoko, who is a ceramics painter, and her romance with a young man named Tatsuki who visits her studio.

The manga launched in Shogakukan's Flowers magazine in March 2018, and ended in March 2022. Shogakukan published the manga's 10th and final compiled book volume in August 2022.

Kodama (Tsukikage Baby, Chiisako no Niwa) launched her nine-volume Sakamichi no Apollon (Kids on the Slope) manga in Flowers in 2007, and ended the series in March 2012. Shogakukan published a one-volume spinoff manga titled Sakamichi no Apollon: Bonus Track in November 2012. 

The Kids on the Slope manga inspired a television anime on Fuji TV's late-night Noitamina programming block in April 2012. Crunchyroll streamed the anime as it aired under the title Kids on the Slope, and Sentai Filmworks released the series on home video in 2013. 

The Kids on the Slope manga also inspired a live-action film that opened in Japan in March 2018.

Kodama launched the Wolf’s Daughter: A Werewolf’s Tale (Ōkami no Musume) manga in Flowers in October 2022, and it is still ongoing. Shogakukan published the manga's 10th volume on April 10. Seven Seas is releasing the manga in English, and it released the third volume on April 14.

Sources: NHK, Comic Natalie