Western Live-Action Series of 'Kami no Shizuku' Manga in Production

Streaming service Hulu Japan announced a live-action television series of Shin Kibayashi and Shuu Okimoto's Kami no Shizuku (The Drops of God) manga on Tuesday. The multinational and multilingual project is a co-production between U.S., French, and Japanese companies.

Legendary Television, Dynamic Television, France Televisions, and Hulu Japan—in partnership with Adline Entertainment—are developing the live-action series. Oded Ruskin (No Man's Land) is directing the series, with Quoc Dang Tran (Marianne) penning the script. Dynamic Television's Klaus Zimmermann (Borgia) is serving as the executive producer.

Filming has begun on the live-action in France, Italy, and Japan. French actress Fleur Geffrier (Elle) and Japanese actor Tomohisa Yamashita (The Head) are starring as Camille and Issei, respectively. The eight episode series, each spanning an hour, will be distributed exclusively on Hulu in Japan in 2022. Legendary Television is managing the worldwide distribution for all territories outside of France and Japan.

Synopsis
Shizuku Kanzaki is the only son of world-renowned wine critic Yutaka Kanzaki. From a young age, Shizuku has been subjected to strange education from his father all for the sake of wine. From learning to gracefully decant a drink to intently remembering the smell of leather belts and pencils, the training causes him to grow resentful of everything related to wine. Discontent with his father, he leaves home to become an average sales representative for a beer company, refusing to ever touch wine again.

When his father suddenly passes away, Shizuku finds himself being dragged back into the world he hates so much. As part of his father's will, the one who will inherit his prized wine collection and estate will go to the person who can correctly identify the "12 Apostles" of wines as well as the legendary "Drops of God." In order to inherit the assets, Shizuku has one year to complete the task, but he finds the proposition ridiculous when he is the only living relative of Yutaka.

What Yutaka failed to tell his son before his death was that he had adopted Issei Tomine into the family a week prior to his passing. Issei is a famous veteran wine critic competing against Shizuku to claim the estate for himself. With no formal training in wine tasting, Shizuku stands no chance against "The Prince of Wine" and is at risk of losing everything in this competition. Will he be able to correctly identify the elusive "Drops of God'' before he runs out of time? [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Shin Kibayashi and his sister Yuuko Kibayashi, under the pen name Tadashi Agi, began the gourmet manga with artist Okimoto in Morning magazine in November 2004. The manga ended its nine and a half year run in June 2014. Kodansha published the manga in 44 volumes, which have a cumulative 15 million copies in circulation.

Mariage: Kami no Shizuku Saishuushou (Mariage: The Drops of God Final Chapter), sequel to the original manga, began in the same magazine in May 2015 and concluded last October. Kodansha published the 26th and final volume on December 23 last year.

Vertical Inc. originally licensed the manga in English in January 2011, releasing the first eight volumes in 2-in-1 omnibus. The fifth and final omnibus, subtitled New World, compiled the 22nd and 23rd volumes in September 2012 by the authors' request. Kodansha US began redistributing the manga digitally on ComiXology and Kindle in October 2019 and released the 44th and final volume on May 18.

Nippon TV produced a nine-episode live-action drama series that ran from January to March in 2009. The series won multiple awards at the 12th Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix in 2008.

Kami no Shizuku boosted wine sales and popularized certain brands in the regions where it was published. La Revue du vin de France, the most prestigious wine magazine in France, awarded the series with the Special Award of the Year in 2010. The manga was featured on New York Times' Best Selling List of Manga in 2011.

Hulu Japan page: https://www.hulu.jp/static/drops-of-god/
Official Twitter: @dropsofgodHulu

Source: Comic Natalie, Variety