The cover of the January 2016 issue of Kodansha 's Bessatsu Friend magazine (cover pictured at right) announced on Saturday that Fuyumi Soryo 's Mars shōjo manga is getting a new live-action TV series. The Mars ~Tada, Kimi wo Aishiteru! ( Mars ~But, I Love You~) series will premiere on January 24 and it will air on NTV on Saturdays from 12:55 a.m. to 1:25 a.m.

The series will star Kis-My-Ft2 member Taisuke Fujigaya ( Nobunaga Concerto 's Inuchiyo Maeda, Kamen Teacher 's Gota Araki) as Rei Kashino and Masataka Kubota ( Death Note TV series' Light) as Masao Kirishima.

Soryo ( ES , Cesare ) published the 15-volume series in Bessatsu Friend from 1996-2000. Soryo also penned a one-volume Mars Gaiden prequel manga. The manga series has more than 5 million copies in print. Tokyopop published all 15 volumes of the manga and the Mars Gaiden prequel in 2002-2004.

The manga revolves around Kira and Rei, two high school students. Kira is an extremely introverted artist, and Rei is an outgoing playboy with a frightening violent side. The two start a friendship and eventually a romance after Rei sees a drawing that Kira drew on the back of a map she gave him. However, both Kira and Rei are hiding troubled pasts, and through their relationship they confront their past demons. Masao, a student at Kira and Rei's school, has a connection to Rei's violent past. He enters Kira and Rei's lives to try to force Rei to return to the person he used to be.