A raunchy comedy about five boys incarcerated at a former all-girls school... And now they’re making a live-action version of it.
Announced on Famitsu.com, the popular manga, Prison School, the anime adaptation of which is currently being aired, is being made into a live-action drama series.
The story centers around the protagonist, Kiyoshi Fujino, one of five boys enrolled in a former girls school. Outnumbered over 200 to 1, the boys expected their school life to be a harem heaven, only to discover the existence of a secret student council that – after an attempt to spy on the girls’ shower – incarcerates the boys in the school’s prison.
The plot sets itself up for lots of risqué, wacky comedy, a mainstay of both the original manga and anime, which may explain the series’ popularity, among other things. However, as we’ve seen in the trend in Japan of “making an anime and then a live action adaptation,” while the anime versions are relatively decent, the live-action adapations... Not so much.
Let me be perfectly honest, I don’t WANT this drama series to be bad. But living in Japan, I’ve seen the quality of their dramas. It’s not a great track record. I’ve seen a few episodes of the currently airing Death Note live action-drama adaptation and that thing is practically a hate crime. So, while I have hopes that the upcoming Prison School drama will be fun and entertaining, considering the nature of the story and Japan’s tendency to mangle their live-action adaptations, they are probably hollow hopes at best.
One thing that does give this project a faint glimmer of hope is that the man chosen to direct and work on the script is one Noboru Iguchi. People will recognize him from such cult classics as The Machine Girl and Robo Geisha. If perhaps he can successfully inject some of his trademark wackiness into the Prison School drama, then it might not be so bad. Here’s hoping.
Prison School the live action drama series is set to air in Japan starting in October.
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