Tree in the Sun

Anime News Network is reporting that Osamu Tezuka's historical medical drama, Tree in the Sun (Hidamari no Ki) is getting a live-action television adaptation featuring Hayato Ichihara and Hiroki Narimiya.

Also known as Tezuka's Ancestor Dr. Ryoan, The story is set during the last days of the Tokugawa Shogunate at the end of the Edo period. It is a time of great upheaval after the American Navy forces Japan to open itself to the outside world, and the Boshin civil war looms in the future. The historical epic follows the friendship between a young low-class samurai named Manjirō Ibuya (Ichihara) and a doctor named Ryōan Tezuka (Narimiya).

The story comes from the manga of the same name which ran in Big Comic (ビッグコミック) from 1981 to 1986. The live-action television version will premiere on NHK's BS Premium satellite/cable channel in April.

For more on this story, please visit the Anime News Network website.