Haikyu!!'s new stage play will "tobe, fly high!!" with a new actor taking on the role of the Greatest Decoy.
As reported by Anime News Network, Haikyu!! will have a new stage play running in Tokyo starting in August 2023. Kenta Suga, who previously played Shōyō Hinata in the seven "Hyper Projection Engeki Haikyu!!" stage plays from 2015 to 2018, will hang up his number 10 jersey and don a director's hat as he will direct the new play titled "Gekidan 'Haikyu!!'" 15-year-old Kenshirō Katō, who will now portray Hinata.
In March 2015, Weekly Shonen Jump unveiled the first stage play for the hit volleyball manga series. The stage play is a 2.5D musical where the actors' make-up, costumes and acting follow the original work as closely as possible. Directed by Worry Kinoshita with a script written by Norihito Nakayashiki, the first stage play covered the introduction of the Karasuno High School volleyball team and the first meet-up between them and their rivals Aoba Johsai. Nakayashiki, a fan of the Haikyu!! manga series wrote a script with select dialogue but provided no stage directions for the actors other than to tell them to try to mimic the characters from the manga as much as possible.
Haikyu!!’s Stage Plays Are a Hit With Fans
"Hyper Projection Engeki Haikyu!!" has a total of eleven stage plays, with the final one called "A View from the Top 2," which revolves around the Spring High match between Karasuno and Kamomedai. The stage play also covers the time skip and the match between Hinata and Kageyama's opposing professional teams. "Hyper Projection Engeki Haikyu!!" was one of the most popular 2.5D stage plays in 2018 and had over 300,000 people attending from 2015 to 2019.
Written and illustrated by Haruichi Furudate, Haikyuu!! began serializing in Weekly Shōnen Jump in February 2012, with its final chapter published in July 2020. The series has over 55 million copies in circulation as of August 2022 and was the second best-selling manga on Oricon's Top 10 Weekly Chart, just below Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. The series follows Shōyō Hinata, a high school volleyball player who dreams of becoming the next "Little Giant" after seeing a player with a short stature overcome every obstacle and wall in his way. In his first and last match of middle school, he meets an arrogant genius setter, Tobio Kageyama, and the two immediately butt heads, with Hinata vowing to beat him one day. Unfortunately, that day will have to wait until the two meet again at Karasuno High School and discover that they must now work together on the same side of the net to soar to greater heights.
All four seasons of Haikyu!! are available on Crunchyroll, with the completed manga series available on VIZ Media. While there is no announced date yet for the two-part final film, a kick-off event will occur in August 2023.
Source: Anime News Network