Anime & Manga
Yuji Naka Admits to Insider Trading Charges in Tokyo Court
Game programmer, director was arrested twice last year
NHK reported on Thursday that game programmer and director Yuji Naka admitted to the charges against him of violating the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act in his first trial hearing in a Tokyo district court on Thursday.
The prosecution said in an opening statement that Naka allegedly bought 130,000 shares and made 20 million yen (about US$146,600) in profits after finding out about upcoming new games in the Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy series.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office first arrested Naka on November 18 on suspicion of insider trading. The arrest was connected with the arrests of former Square Enix employee Taisuke Sasaki and his acquaintance Fumiaki Suzuki. Sasaki and Suzuki allegedly invested in the company aiming after they learned that it was developing the Dragon Quest Tact smartphone game in collaboration with Square Enix.
The same prosecutors office arrested Naka a second time on December 7, on suspicion of insider trading, or buying/selling stock on the basis of nonpublic information. While still at Square Enix, Naka allegedly invested in Ateam, developers of the company’s Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier mobile game, prior to the game’s announcement. Former Square Enix employee Taisuke Sasaki was also once again arrested for the same reason. They are suspected of purchasing about 120,000 shares of Ateam for about 144.7 million yen (about US$1 million).
Naka joined Square Enix in January 2018, and resigned from the company at the end of April 2021. He had stated at the time that he could not explain the reason for the resignation, but would talk about it publicly when the time came. Naka revealed in April 2022 that he had filed a lawsuit against Square Enix for supposedly removing him as the director of the Balan Wonderworld game six months before the game launched.
Naka worked for 22 years at Sega. He is the former head of the Sonic Team and lead programmer of the original Sonic the Hedgehog games for Sega Genesis. He also worked on such games as Nights into Dreams and Phantasy Star Online while at Sega.
Naka is the president and CEO of the PROPE game development company, which he founded in 2006 after leaving Sega. At PROPE, he worked on such games as Fishing Resort, Buddy Monster, and Legend of Coin.
Source: NHK via Siliconera
Entertainment news magazine Variety reported on Sunday that Drops of God, the new internationally co-produced, multilingual live-action television series of Tadashi Agi and Shū Okimoto‘s The Drops of God (Kami no Shizuku) manga, will premiere on April 21.
Apple TV+ has acquired the eight-part series and will broadcast and stream it worldwide simultaneously in 2023.
The official title in Japan is Kami no Shizuku/Drops of God. (Similar to the title in Japan for the second Fullmetal Alchemist television series, the live-action series’ title includes both the Japanese and English titles of the manga.)
Legendary Television is handling worldwide distribution outside of France and Japan. Hulu Japan will exclusively stream the series inside Japan alongside its world premiere. The series filmed over 10 months in France, Italy, and Japan.
The series is a collaboration between U.S., French, and Japanese companies. Legendary Television, Dynamic Television, France Televisions, and Hulu Japan are backing the project, and are producing the project with Adline Entertainment. Oded Ruskin (Absentia, No Man’s Land) is directing the series, and Quoc Dang Tran (Marianne, Parallel) wrote the scripts. Dynamic’s Klaus Zimmermann (Borgia, Trapped) is producing the series.
As previously announced, Tomohisa Yamashita (pictured left) and French actress Fleur Geffrier (Elle) star in the series. The announcement noted that Geffrier’s character is named Shizuku Kanzaki, the protagonist of the manga. A previous announcement noted that rival character Issei Tōmine would be the show’s protagonist, but an earlier report in 2021 from entertainment news service Variety described the series as having a female protagonist, with Geffrier playing the role.
Variety describes the story of the TV series:
The story involves a woman who discovers that her estranged father has left her the world’s greatest wine collection in his will. But, to claim her inheritance she must compete against a Japanese man who her father regarded as a son and may have been more.
Siblings Shin and Yuko Kibayashi — under the pen name Tadashi Agi — launched The Drops of God manga with artist Okimoto in Kodansha‘s Morning magazine 2004. A live-action series based on the manga aired in Japan in 2009. The manga ended in June 2014, and the 44th and final compiled book volume shipped in July 2014. The manga’s final arc, titled Marriage ~Kami no Shizuku Saishūshō~ (Marriage ~The Drops of God Final Arc~), launched in May 2015, and it ended in October 2020.
Comixology and Kodansha USA Publishing have released the manga in English digitally.
Throughout its serialization, the manga had famously boosted the sales of wines profiled in the story. The French wine magazine La Revue du vin de France has recognized the manga, giving it the magazine’s top award in 2010. The New York Times also profiled the manga in its Dining and Wine section in 2008.
Source: Variety (Marta Balaga)
New visual also revealed
The official website for Tōsōchū: The Great Mission, an anime inspired by the Fuji TV game show run for money Tōsōchū (known as Run for the Money in English), revealed the show’s promotional video on Monday. The video previews fhána‘s opening theme song “Runaway World.”
The website also revealed a new visual from original character designer Takeshi Okano.
The series will premiere on April 2.
The previously revealed cast includes: (Note: English name romanizations not confirmed)
Yukio Kaizawa (Digimon Tamers) and Kōhei Kureta (One Piece, Kirakira Precure a la Mode) are directing the anime at Toei Animation. Yōichi Ōnishi is designing the characters based on original art by Takeshi Okano (Jigoku Sensei Nube). Kotaro Nakagawa (Code Geass) is composing the music. Ayaka Kami and Kentaro Akiyama (Revue Starlight) are the art directors. Kenji Fukuda is handling the art setting. Shōhei Tamura is in charge of 3D stage design.
Boys group AB6IX is performing the ending theme song “Fly Away.”
The anime is set in the future when humanity has migrated to the Moon due to Earth’s climate change. The anime incorporates its own elements such as the human drama of survival on a diverse field that blurs countries and eras such as Shibuya, Edo-period Japan, and London.
The game show has been airing irregularly on Fuji TV since 2004. The “runaway” contestants try to survive in theme parks, shopping centers, and other venues to earn cash as “hunters” pursue them. The show has already inspired stage productions, publications, and a Netflix release.
Sources: Tōsōchū: The Great Mission anime’s website (link 2), Comic Natalie
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