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Netflix Contracts Toho Studio Facilities in Tokyo for Live-Action Yu Yu Hakusho Series
posted on by Alex Mateo
TOHO Studios announced last Thursday that Netflix has signed a multi-year contract to lease two of its stage facilities in Tokyo starting on April 1. Netflix's first production there will be the live-action series based on Yoshihiro Togashi's Yū Yū Hakusho manga.
Netflix is leasing two of TOHO Studios' 10 sound stages, Stage 7 and Stage 10, in addition to two acting centers and a production center, for its original programming.
The live-action Yū Yū Hakusho series will stream on Netflix simultaneously worldwide.
Netflix contents acquisition director Kazutaka Sakamoto is the executive producer, and Akira Morii (Wild 7, Brave Heart Umizaru) is producing at Robot.
Sakamoto noted that he grew up with the original manga, and he still vividly remembers its excitement and impact. He added that it now has fans throughout Asia and the rest of the world. He said that Netflix is assembling a team of the best talent from Japan and abroad.
The manga follows 14-year-old delinquent Yusuke Urameshi, who dies after saving a child in a car accident. The Spirit World is surprised by his death and offers him a chance to come back as a "spirit detective" who is tasked with defeating demons.
Togashi (Hunter X Hunter) published the original Yū Yū Hakusho manga from 1990 to 1994. Viz Media began publishing the manga in its English edition of Shonen Jump in 2002, and it also released all 19 volumes in print.
A television anime adaptation ran from 1992 to 1995, and spawned two films and two original video anime (OVA) releases. Funimation released the television series and OVAs on home video in North America. Media Blasters and later Funimation released the first film, and Central Park Media released the second film. The television series ran on Adult Swim and later Toonami.
A new OVA debuted at a screening event in October 2018, and later shipped with the fourth part of the anime's 25th Anniversary Blu-ray Box collection in the same month. The new anime adapted the "Two Shot" bonus chapter from the manga's seventh volume, as well as the manga's penultimate chapter "All or Nothing."
The manga inspired a stage play (pictured left) that ran in Japan from August to September 2019.
Source: Animation Business Journal (Tadashi Sudo)
