Lychee Light Club

Plot

The story centers around a nine-member club of middle school boys called the Light Club, in their endeavor to create a Robot in order to abduct beautiful girls. As the club uses increasingly depraved methods to reach their goal, the original leader, Tamiya, tries to reclaim his position after he becomes unhappy with the way the new leader, Zera, runs the club.

Publication

Written and illustrated by Usamaru Furuya, Lychee Light Club is loosely based upon a 1985 play of the same name directed by Norimizu Ameya for the theatrical group Tokyo Grand Guignol. A single tankōbon volume was published by Ohta on June 21, 2006, and later digitally released on November 6, 2008. At the 2010 Comic-Con, Vertical announced that it had licensed it for an English-language translation in North America. Vertical published its paperback edition on April 26, 2011.

A prequel to the original story that unveils the past of the club members was announced in January 2011. Called Our Light Club, it was serialized in Ohta Publishing's online pocopoco magazine between April 15, 2011, and March 15, 2012. The first volume is referred to as Our Light Club Before: Grade Schoolers Volume, while the second volume is referred to as Our Light Club After: Middle Schoolers Volume.

Anime adaptation

In August 2012, the franchise official site announced an anime adaptation titled Litchi DE Hikari Club to premiere in October. Consisting of eight comedy shorts, it was broadcast on Tokyo MX from October 2 to November 20, 2012. It was directed by Masahiro Takata, screenplayed by Motoichi Adachi, and produced by Chihiro Nagai under Kachidoki Studio. A DVD compilation was released by Cammot on December 26, 2012. The series was made available online by Crunchyroll in the English-speaking regions of North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

Episode list

Reception

Debora Aoki of About.com elected it the sixth most anticipated graphic novel to be published in 2011, writing it is a "compelling story like no other". During a 2011 panel at Comic-Con, Carlo Santos of Anime News Network elected it one of the best manga of the year, calling it "foul, disgusting, and wonderful".

Legacy

Stage plays

In January 2011, a stage adaptation was announced, Directed and written by Junko Emoto, the play ran from December 14 to 25, 2012 at Kinokuniya Hall in Tokyo. and kept most of the cast, except for Rin Honoka who was replaced by Aimi Satsukawa as Kanon. It was also directed and written by Emoto and ran at AiiA Theater Tokyo from December 16 to 24, 2013. The 2012–2013 run had Ryo Kimura as its protagonist, Zera, and Tomoya Nakamura took the role for the 2015 version. while the 2015 play's DVD was released on April 27, 2016.

Band

Rock band Penicillin's vocalist Hakuei, who composed the music for the anime, "Haikyo no Teiō" was the first song released by the group as both a standard ringtone and a full-length ringtone as a standard ringtone and full-length ringtone on January 1, 2011. This and five more songs were released in the mini album titled Elagabalus no Yume on December 21, 2011. Their first live performance was at Tokyo Kinema Club on December 30, 2011, and it was released in DVD format on June 26, 2012, under the title of Haikyo no Oto Gakkai.

A split album containing six tracks performed along with the band Machine, Rendez-vous, was released on July 25, 2012. On December 12, 2012, they released their first full album, the eleven-track Grand Guignol and the compilation album -2011~2012 Complete Best- "Reimei". They performed again at Tokyo Kinema Club, this time along with Machine, on December 30, 2012, and its DVD, Haikyo no Kyōen: Aube, was released on March 21, 2013.

A mini album, Hikari no Tei Kuni, was released on December 11, 2013, and was followed by a tour from December 25, 2013, to January 26, 2014. The release of the mini album titled Kikikaikai on August 13, 2014, led them to have a tour from August 24 to 30.

Film adaptation

In April 2013, Ohta Publishing announced a live-action version of the manga had been green-lit. Only in July 2015, though, the main cast and staff, a trailer and a release date—Japan's winter—were revealed. It was directed by Eisuke Naitō, co-written by Naitō and Keisuke Tominaga and starred Shūhei Nomura as Tamiya and Yuki Furukawa as Zera. it premiered worldwide at the 20th Busan International Film Festival on October 2, 2015. Although its nationwide release was initially scheduled to be in January 2016, in November 2015 it was postponed to February 13, 2016, when the film was ultimately released.

Elizabeth Kerr of The Hollywood Reporter considered it to be "familiar territory of out-of-control, angry teens".

References

References

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