Salaryman Kintaro Manga Gets Stage Opera
Takaki Kurihara stars in opera opening in Tokyo on September 5
There will be a stage opera adaptation of Hiroshi Motomiya's popular manga series Salaryman Kintaro, titled "Salaryman Kintaro : Money Wars". This production will take place at Tiara Koto Hall in Tokyo on September 5th.
Kintaro Yajima is portrayed by Takaki Kurihara in the opera. Additionally, the performance includes storytellers Yasuharu Nakajima and Naomi Yanaga, along with a guest appearance from Chō Shunshō.
Kenichi Kamio is directing the opera, composing its music, playing the piano, producing it at Light Link Music, and handling the timpani. Meanwhile, Midori Sumidagawa is working on its screenplay. Yūki Sakamoto is in charge of the timpani for this production.
The opera celebrates the milestone of its 30th year since the launch of the initial manga. It is based on the Money Wars storyline from the source material.
Since its start in 1994, the manga series has appeared intermittently in Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump magazine. Motomiya revived the series as a web manga in April of 2005 and created several spinoffs that were published in Weekly Young Jump starting in 2009. Motomiya's most recent work on the series is titled "Salaryman Kintaro Gojūsai" (Salaryman Kintaro 50 Years Old), which was published in Weekly Young Jump from 2015 to 2016.
In 2012, NTT Solmare's ComicFriends Facebook page provided English translations of manga for a brief period of time. However, this service has since been discontinued. Currently, Manga Planet is releasing the original manga in English for its readers.
The Manga Planet service describes the manga's story:
Retired ex-bike gang leader of the "Hasshu" Kintaro Yajima leaves his hometown where he worked as a fisherman until his wife, Akemi, passed away. With his son, Ryouta, they go to Tokyo, where Kintaro would start with his new job: a salaryman. Now, the question is: would Kintaro be able to handle the office work and office politics being a salaryman brings?
Two movies based on a manga have been released in Japan. The first one, called "Salaryman Kintaro Akatsuki-hen" ( "Salaryman Kintaro Dawn" ), came out on January 10th. Meanwhile, "Salaryman Kintaro Sakigake-hen" ( "Salaryman Kintaro Vanguard" ) was released on February 7th. Nobuyuki Suzuki is playing Kintarō Yajima in both movies.
In 1999, Katsunori Takahashi portrayed a character in both a film directed by Takashi Miike and a four-season television drama series. Masaru Nagai also appeared in a live-action series that ran from 2008 to 2010. Additionally, the manga inspired an anime series that Arts Magic released in North America in 2001.
Sources: Salaryman Kintaro opera's website ( link ) , Stage Natalie ( link )
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