Posted in: TV | Tagged: anime, Doronjo, Elaiza Ikeda, live action, Takeshi Miike, tatsunoko studios, wowow, Yattaman

Doronjo: Japanese Cabler Wowow Unveils Yatterman Live-Action Spinoff

Classic anime series Yatterman is getting a live action – and possibly more adult-oriented – prequel series called Doronjo. The series will star popular singer and actress Elaiza Ikeda as Lady Doronjo, recurring femme fatale villainess. The series is being produced by Japan pay TV broadcaster Wowow.

The teaser trailer for Doronjo showed up on the show's official Instagram account established by Wowow. It looks like a grim and gritty prequel about the early life of a character named Nao Dorokawa who would eventually become the supervillainess Doronjo.

For those of you not familiar, Yattaman is a classic anime series from 1977 to 1979 from Tatsunoko Studios, one of many superhero characters the studio created in the 1970s and early 1980s. It was like a combination of Scooby Doo and the campy Sixties Batman show where masked teenage superheroes Yattaman 1, his girlfriend Yattaman 2 and their giant robot dog Yatta-King battle femme fatale Lady Doronjo and her doofus henchmen Boyaki and Tonzura every week. It always results in goofy slapstick mayhem and ended with a literal nuclear explosion every week. Every week. This is what you get when you traumatize an entire country by dropping not one but two atom bombs on them back in WWII. And this series was a massive hit in Japan, still spawning video games, a rebooted anime series in 2008, an animated movie and even a live action movie in 2009 directed by Takeshi Miike, who is a huge fan. Doronjo is the series' first live action TV spinoff.

"The shocking past of the sadly beautiful dark heroine Doronjo will be revealed over 11 episodes premiering in October," Wowow said in their press release. "A new interpretation from a completely new perspective will show how Doronjo became Doronjo."

Doronjo is co-directed by Eisuke Naito and Hatsuki Yokoo. The producers are Masaki Yamada, Yusuke Kobayashi and Megumi Hoshino. The series is written by Kohei Kiyasu, Eisuke Naito, Satoshi Oshio and Midori Sato.

The 11 episodes of Doronjo will premiere on October 7th on wowow in Japan.  There is no news yet for whether it'll end up on a Western streaming service.

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