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Umimachi Diary/Our Little Sister Manga Gets New Stage Play
posted on by Alex Mateo
Straydog announced on Friday that it is producing a new stage play based on Akimi Yoshida's Umimachi Diary (Seaside Town Diary) manga. The play will run at the Theater Sun Mall in Tokyo from March 30 to April 3, and at the ABC Hall in Osaka from April 9-10. The new play will be a revival of Straydog's previous stage play adaptation (seen right) that ran from March though April 2017 at Tokyo's New National Theater.
The play will feature a new cast, including Mio Hanana as Sachi, Maasa Sudo as Yoshino, Moe Goto as Chika, and unit OneFive's Kano as Suzu.
Toshiyuki Morioka is returning to direct the play and write the screenplay. The sister band Les.R will again provide music, as well as perform during the play.
The previous cast includes: Mami Yamasaki, Yurina Yanagi, Ari Kadomae, Manaka Kinoshita, Sasa Handa, Yuki Tsumuraya, Yūki Nakahara, Riyo Morioka, Maika Nakajima, Takae Niyama, Miku Togashi, Saki Shiraishi, Ryō Tani, Masahiro Ishida, Takumi Noi, Aki Morita, Hitoshi Satō, Akiyoshi Shibata, Kazuhiro Nakahara, and others.
Rock band Risky Melody and Les.R's Yuka were listed as bands for the previous stage play.
The manga's story takes place in Kamakura, and revolves around three sisters: Sachi, the eldest sister who works as a nurse; Yoshino, the middle sister who works in a bank; and Chika, the youngest sister who works at a sporting goods store. The three sisters have been living together in their family's house after their parents divorced and left. One day, they receive news that their father has passed away. Yoshino hasn't seen her father in over 15 years, and is not particularly affected by the news, while Chika barely has any memory of him. Despite this, Sachi persuades the sisters to go to his funeral. There, they discover that they have a 13-year-old half-sister named Suzu whom they have never met. With no one left to care for her, the sisters invite her to live with them.
The manga began serialization in Monthly Flowers in 2006, and it ended in June 2018. Shogakukan shipped the ninth and final compiled book volume in December 2018.
The manga won an Excellence Award at the 11th Japan Media Arts Festival Awards in 2007, and it won the 2013 Manga Taisho (Cartoon Grand Prize) award. The manga also won the 61st Shogakukan Manga Awards for Best General Manga in 2016.
The manga also inspired a 2015 live-action film by famed director Hirokazu Kore-eda that screened with English subtitles under the title Our Little Sister. The film won five awards, including Best Picture of the Year, at the 37th Annual Japan Academy Prizes in March 2016. Sony Pictures Classics released the film digitally and on home video in North America.
Update: Corrected and added more information about awards manga has won. Thanks, Tenbinzan.
Sources: Stray Dog, Comic Natalie
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