is a Japanese

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series written and illustrated by Tetsuya Tsutsui. It was serialized in

Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...

's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Jump X'' from July 2011 to August 2013. A sequel, titled ''Yokokuhan: The Copycat'', was serialized in the same magazine from April to October 2014 and later transferred to ''

Weekly Young Jump is a Japanese ''seinen'' manga magazine published by Shueisha. Launched in 1979, it is published under Shueisha's ''Jump'' line of magazines. The chapters of series that run in ''Weekly Young Jump'' are collected and published in ''tankōbon'' v ...

'', where it ran from March to July 2015. A

live-action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ga ...

film and a five-episode

television drama In film and television show, television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or docudrama, semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humour, humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms t ...

adaptations premiered in 2015.

Media

Manga

Published by

, it was serialized in ''Jump X'' magazine from July 25, 2011, to August 10, 2013, and compiled into three volumes published from April 2012 to September 2013. In North America, it was acquired by

Vertical Vertical is a geometric term of location which may refer to: * Vertical direction, the direction aligned with the direction of the force of gravity, up or down * Vertical (angles), a pair of angles opposite each other, formed by two intersecting s ...

in September 2013. It was also published in Brazil by

Editora JBC Editora JBC (also known as "JBC") is a company that publishes books (including manga) and magazines related to Japan in Brazil. It has its headquarters in São Paulo. This company was established in Tokyo, Japan, in 1992 to publish Portuguese n ...

, and in French by

Ki-oon Ki-oon is a French manga publisher founded in October 2003 by Cécile Pournin and Ahmed Agne. It released its first manga in March 2004, the first volume of ''Element Line''. The name "Ki-oon" comes from an onomatopoeia meaning "having the heart ...

A spin-off manga, titled ''Yokokuhan: The Copycat'', and illustrated by Fumio Obata started in ''Jump X'' on April 10, 2014. With the magazine discontinuation on October 10, 2014, the series moved to ''

'', starting on March 11, 2015. The manga finished on July 23, 2015. ''Yokokuhan: The Copycat''s three volumes were published between April 2015 and August 2015. It was licensed in France by Ki-oon. A side-off

light novel A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a ''wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English languag ...

titled ''Yokokuhan: The Chaser'' was published on May 19, 2015.

Volume list

=''Prophecy''

=''Yokokuhan: The Copycat''

Film

live action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ga ...

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dial ...

directed by

Yoshihiro Nakamura is a Japanese film director and screenwriter, known for his 2009 film '' Fish Story'', which premiered at the New York Asian Film Festival, and ''A Boy and His Samurai'', which won the Audience Award at the 2011 New York Asian Film Festival. Li ...

was released on June 6, 2015. Its North American premiere was held during the

LA EigaFest LA EigaFest, is an annual film festival held in Los Angeles, California hosted by the Japan Film Society. It showcases the latest Japanese films to the American audience. The festival also hosts a Shorts Competition (the Golden Zipangu Awards) an ...

in September 2015. The film was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on December 4, 2015, by TC Entertainment.

Cast

Toma Ikuta is a Japanese actor. Ikuta is known for his roles in '' Hanazakari no Kimitachi e'', ''Honey & Clover'', '' Sensei!'', '' Maō'' and '' Ouroboros''. He also stars in feature films, notably ''Hanamizuki'', '' Ningen Shikkaku'' and ''Brain Man'' ...

as "Newspaper Man" *

Erika Toda is a Japanese actress. Career Toda has starred in many Japanese television dramas, including ''Liar Game'', ''Code Blue'', '' Ryusei no Kizuna'', and ''Keizoku 2: SPEC''. She has also had supporting roles in many other popular TV dramas, such a ...

as Yoshino *Ryohei Suzuki as Kansai *

Gaku Hamada is a Japanese film and television actor. He was a regular cast member of Fuji TV's '' Operation Love'', appearing in all 11 episodes broadcast in 2007 and the 2008 special, and receiving an award for his role. He has made numerous other TV appe ...

as Nobita *Yoshiyoshi Arakawa as Metabo

Drama

Under the title of , a

Japanese television drama , also called , are television programs that are a staple of Japanese television and are broadcast daily. All major TV networks in Japan produce a variety of drama series including romance, comedy, detective stories, horror, jidaigeki, thriller ...

ran for five episodes on WOWOW between June 7 to July 5, 2015. Supervised by the film director Yoshihiro Nakamura, it was directed by Nakamura himself, Katsutoshi Hirabayashi and Megumi Sawada, with episodes screenplayed by Tamio Hayashi and Hiroshi Tanaka. It starred

Noriyuki Higashiyama is a Japanese singer, actor, and member of the idol group Shonentai. He is married to actress Yoshino Kimura. Filmography Film * '' Love Forever'' (1983) * ''Aitsu to Lullaby'' (1983) – Hiroshi Machida * '' Nineteen'' (1987) – East * ''Maji ...

and Erika Toda reprises her role from the film. A soundtrack of the series was released on June 3, 2015, by Anchor Records, with all tracks composed by Takashi Omama, the drama's main composer. All episodes were released on DVD and Blu-Ray on December 4, 2015, by TC Entertainment.

Reception

Volume 3 reached the 45th place on the weekly

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

manga charts and, as of September 15, 2013, has sold 20,871 copies. On

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and oth ...

, Rebecca Silverman gave volume 1 an overall grade of A−. On manga-news.com, the series has a staff grade of 16 out of 20. The film earned () on its opening weekend in Japan and a total of () so far.

References

External links

Official manga website

Official ''Yokokuhan - The copycat'' website

Official film website
* * {{Yoshihiro Nakamura 2011 manga 2014 manga 2010s Japanese films Films directed by Yoshihiro Nakamura Japanese television dramas based on manga Live-action films based on manga Manga adapted into films Seinen manga Shueisha manga Shueisha franchises Thriller anime and manga Vertical (publisher) titles Wowow original programming Fiction about social media