Tomohiro Hata Performs Live-Action Ao no Hana Utsuwa no Mori Series’ Theme Song – News

NHK announced on Tuesday that Tomohiro Hata will perform the theme song “Fragments” for the live-action series of Yūki Kodama‘s Ao no Hana, Utsuwa no Mori (Blue Flower, Forest of Vessels) manga. NHK also unveiled a new visual for the series:

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.

Former SKE48 and Nogizaka46 idol Rena Matsui (Ultimate Otaku Teacher) will star in the series as Aoko Baba. Hayate Ichinose (Kishiryū Sentai Ryusoulger) plays the male lead Tatsuki Manabe.

The series will debut on NHK‘s “Yorudora” programming block on October 26. 

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