Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku

In the organizer's words:

ヲタクに恋は難しい Otaku ni koi wa muzukashii

Director: FUKUDA Yûichi
2020, 114 minutes, OmeU, Blu-ray

This refreshingly funny musical is based on the web comic of the same name by artist Fujita, published on her Pixiv account in 2014/2015. The printed version was published in 2015 and the manga was subsequently serialized.

It tells the story of office lady Narumi Momose, who reads "boys' love manga" with great passion, but keeps it a secret. At her new job, she meets her childhood friend Hirotaka Nifuji, who is himself an otaku (i.e. fanatic/maniac). He wants to go out with her and thinks it would be nice to be an otaku couple. After some initial hesitation, Narumi agrees, but the two of them have to struggle with a few difficulties from then on.

Many of the musical interludes are by the famous Japanese composer, arranger and music producer Sagisu Shirô.

Film series
Manga on the big screen - Japanese comic adaptations

To accompany the exhibition Manga Hokusai Manga, The Sketchbooks of the Famous Master from the Perspective of Contemporary Japanese Comics, we are continuing a film series with comic adaptations, the first part of which was shown in October. It features two anime and two live-action films.

The two anime were directed by the multi-award-winning Hara Keiichi, who made a name for himself with "Summer Days with Coo"(Kappa no Kuu to natsuyasumi, 2007) and "Colorful"(Karafuru, 2010), among others. In Usui Yoshito's manga series about the rebellious boy Shin-chan, he is responsible for both the adaptation as a TV series and for several feature films.
With "Miss Hokusai"(Sarusuberi - Miss Hokusai), Hara has realized his long-cherished wish to adapt a work by manga author Sugiura Hinako. The anime is dedicated to O-Ei, a daughter of Katsushika Hokusai, who also created manga with great talent.

The two live-action films also demonstrate the immense diversity of the manga genre. An entertaining musical about an unconventional young couple is based on a web comic(Otaku ni koi wa muzukashii), and the drama by master director Koreeda Hirokazu, which is aimed at an adult audience, deals with the existential questions of life in a sensitive way(Kûki ningyô).

Price information:

Admission free