Netflix Japan has greenlighted a new drama series produced by veteran TV comedian and host Sanma Akashiya. The currently untitled series has backing from talent agency Yoshimoto Kogyo and Dentsu Digital Holdings, a fund management company that is part of the Dentsu ad agency. Shooting will begin this summer and streaming is scheduled to start next spring.
Based on the life of Jimmy Onishi, a comedian and painter who was once Sanma’s apprentice, the eight-episode drama will be shot on 4K video and a subtitled version will be distributed in 200 countries and territories worldwide. Each episode will run about 40-50 minutes.
This is the second Japanese-made drama commissioned by Netflix. The first, “Hibana: Spark,” a series about a struggling comic duo, based on an award-winning novella by Yoshimoto comic Naoki Matayoshi, will start streaming on June 3.
