Japanese Manga ‘Hotaru’s Way’ Getting U.S. Series Remake

EXCLUSIVE: Unapologetic Projects, the company behind Sundance winner Dìdi, is ramping up its move into television with a U.S. remake of a popular Japanese manga series.

The company is developing a U.S. series adaptation of Hotaru’s Way, which was originally written by Satoru Hiura and has sold over 5M copies worldwide. It was adapted into a live-action drama series in Japan as well as feature film Hotaru The Movie: It’s Only A Little Light In My Life, which grossed over $22M in Japan.

Hotaru is a polished executive assistant who spends her days in red bottoms and blazers and her nights in dirty sweats, eating takeout and binging reality TV in the apartment she sublets from her former boss, per the logline. She’s carefully kept her messy home life separate from work, until her boss unexpectedly moves back in, forcing her to reevaluate what she really wants from her career, love and adulthood.”

It is being written by Angela Nissel, who was a co-exec producer of Scrubs and exec producer of Ginny & Georgia, and Sasha Leigh Henry, who wrote on Workin’ Moms and created Crave comedy Bria Mack Gets a Life.

Unapologetic Projects Head of Television Paige Hooper will produce with Motoko Kimura (Vegas: A Love Story) and Kate Kugler (The Toast).

Hooper said, “We are thrilled to move forward with this new series. This is just the first of a few projects we have in progress as we are building our own unique path towards a long-term development strategy and approach. We believe we have a strong pipeline for success and are eager to get new projects out for audiences to enjoy.”