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Anohana Writer Mari Okada's Autobiography Gets TV Special
posted on by Egan Loo
From Truant to Anime Screenwriter: My Path to “anohana” and “The Anthem of the Heart” (Gakkō e Ikenakatta Watashi ga anohana Kokosake o Kaku Made) — the autobiography of prolific anime scriptwriter Mari Okada — is inspiring a live-action television special. The Gakkō e Ikenakatta Watashi ga anohana Kokosake o Kaku Made special will run on the public broadcaster NHK's BS Premium channel on September 1 from 10:00 p.m. to 11:29 p.m.
Former AKB48 idol group member Atsuko Maeda will star in the role of Mari Okada, and Okada herself wrote the screenplay for the special. The special is a collage of both live-action sequences and footage from anime works.
The other cast members include Shunsuke Daitō, Kenta Hamano, Mijika Nagai, Yōichi Nukumizu, Tōru Nomaguchi, Yōji Tanaka, Hirotaro Honda, and Yasuko Tomita. Hideki Fujinami is directing the special, and Yukari Hashimoto (March comes in like a lion, Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun) is composing the music.
In the original book, Okada describes her strained relationship with her mother and her life as a shut-in who could not make herself attend school. She managed to graduate high school by exchanging essays with her teacher, and debuted as a screenwriter for direct-to-video films in 1997.
Okada's anime screenwriting credits include anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, Hanasaku Iroha - Blossoms for Tomorrow, AKB0048, A Lull in the Sea, The Anthem of the Heart, and Kiznaiver. She recently made her directorial debut with the Maquia - When the Promised Flower Blooms film, which opened in Japan in February 24.
Bungeishunjū published the memoir in April 2017. Masayoshi Tanaka, the character designer of anohana and Anthem of the Heart, illustrated the cover. J-Novel Club released the book in English this month.
Source: Comic Natalie
