Junichi Yamakawa’s 1987 one-shot became an Internet meme in the early 2000s
Kodoani.com – A website opened on Saturday to announce the first “official” anime adaptation of the manga. Face Mask Technique by Junichi Yamakawa was given the green light for this year. Despite the announcement date of April 1, the websites Comic Natalie and Dengeki Online reported that they had confirmed the legitimacy of the announcement. Anime Tokyo is producing the original mid-length anime Shin Yaranai ka as an all-ages title, and the staff plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign early in the summer.
The story begins with Masaki Michishita, an ordinary prep student who was in a hurry to go to the bathroom in the park one day. Despite his haste, he saw Takakazu Abe, an extremely handsome auto mechanic sitting on a bench. The two look at each other, and after Abe exclaims “Yaranai ka” (Shall we do it?), the two begin their encounter. The anime will expand upon the one-shot manga and incorporate elements from other Yamakawa works, as well as its own unique story elements.
Studio Kingyoiro’s Pierre Itō directs the anime as planned. Itō personally discovered the manga on the online Futaba Channel forum during his junior high school years, later creating and posting an unofficial live-action fan video on YouTube under the pseudonym “” Yoshiro Sasaki.” (As of Saturday, that video is still active with more than 555,000 views.) Itō recalls going to his private high school in Abe’s blue outfit, and he continues to cosplay as Abe in while dancing in the anime “Hare Hare Yukai by Haruhi Suzumiya” song at his school’s cultural festival and attending Comic Market.
“Yoshirō Sasaki” will voice Takakazu Abe in the planned anime, and Sorate (“just graduated from high school”) will voice Masaki Michishita. “Ikansoku” is writing the script and Taiten Kawakami is collaborating on the script.
Yamakawa published the original one-shot manga in the second issue of BaraComi, a special side story manga from the yaoi fan magazine Barazoku, in 1987. In the early 2000s, the manga’s “Yaranai ka” line was became an Internet meme.
