Supernatural suspense manga previously inspired anime, 3 live-action films, musical

This year's 21st issue of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine is announcing on Monday that Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's Death Note manga is inspiring a live-action TV drama adaptation premiering in July. The magazine is announcing the drama at the end of Monday's chapter of Obata and Nobuaki Enoki's Gakkyu Hotei manga. No further details have been announced.

In Ohba and Obata's original supernatural suspense manga, a teenager named Light finds a notebook with which he can put people to death by writing their names. He begins a self-anointed crusade against the criminals of the world, and a cat-and-mouse game begins with the authorities and one idiosyncratic genius detective. The 12-volume manga ran in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine from 2003 to 2006.

The manga has already inspired three live-action films and a 37-episode television anime series in Japan. Viz Media released the Death Note manga, the anime series, and a spinoff novel in North America.

Viz Pictures released the three live-action films in American theaters. The live-action films star Tatsuya Fujiwara as Light Yagami and Kenichi Matsuyama as L.

More recently, the manga is inspiring a musical by a Japanese and American team. The musical will run at Tokyo's Nissay Theatre from April 6 to April 29. The musical will then travel to Osaka and Nagoya in May, and it will also run in South Korea from July to August, but with a different cast.