In 1986, stage director Hideki Noda and Moto Hagio, the “founding mother” of “shojo manga,” or manga comics aimed at audience of young women, collaborated on the stage dramatization of a Hagio comic. “Half Gods (Hanshin)” became one of the biggest hits from Noda’s famous theater company, Yume no Yuminsha. Now the play returns to both the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre and the Myeongdong Theater in Seoul, Korea.
The performers have all been chosen after auditions in Korea, with the participation of Japanese planners crucial to the project and of Noda himself, who directs. The new South Korea-Japan co-production of “Half Gods” takes to the boards this fall.