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Original run February 22, 2012 – February 22, 2017 Directed by Mamoru Hoshi, Masataka Takamaru Genres Romantic comedy, Supernatural Similar Nisekoi, Food Wars!: Shokuge, Assassination Classroom, The Seven Deadly Sins, Black Clover | ||
Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches (Japanese: 山田くんと７人の魔女, Hepburn: Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo) is a finished manga series written and illustrated by Miki Yoshikawa. The series has been published by Kodansha in their Weekly Shonen Magazine since February 22, 2012 to February 22, 2017. The series has been licensed in Chinese by the Taiwanese publishing company Tong Li. It was adapted into a live-action television drama which aired on FujiTV from August–September 2013. On October 26, 2013, Crunchyroll announced a partnership with Kodansha where it would distribute chapters digitally to 170 countries. The series has been licensed for North American release by Kodansha Comics USA, who began releasing the series in 2015. The series concluded in February 2017 with 28 compiled volumes.
Contents
Conception and development
Manga author Miki Yoshikawa's previous work, Flunk Punk Rumble ran in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine from 2006-2011, with a total of 211 chapters. Her editor suggested for her next project that she write a one-shot for Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine. She developed two stories: a prototype story for Yamada-kun and The Demon's Classroom. The second story was initially chosen, but became difficult to run because the main character was a grade school girl. The prototype Yamada story eventually became the first chapter for Yamada-kun.
In the Natalie interview, Yoshikawa said that she had thought of the body swapping idea in the Yankee-kun days, and had researched some medical books on the differences between men and women, both physically and emotionally, but generally went with it because she liked the idea. "It just kind of came to me, but I was wondering how a guy finding himself in a girl’s body would react, and the reverse". She treats a body-swapped character as an entirely different character. At Anime Expo 2015, she said that she initially thought about gender swapping first but later rejected that as a potential magic power.
When it was noted that the main characters for both of her works were delinquents, Yoshikawa replied that those types of characters came easily for her, as she grew up in the lower end of Tokyo. The characters and their names are not based on her friends so that they can act crazy. At Anime Expo 2015, she said that the characters reflect different aspects of herself. She also said that the Yamada-kun characters go to a different school from the ones in Yankee-kun but that they live in adjacent neighborhoods.
With regards to drawing, she tries to vary each kiss, but mostly uses the side angle to make sure it comes through. With regards to kisses between members of the same gender, she replied that wasn't intended to target any specific demographic but just "an inevitable outcome." At the time of Anime Expo, she said she had five assistants. She does her drawing by hand in black-and-white, and uses the computer for the filling in colors. She spends about half of her time on story, and the other half on actual drawing.
Plot
Ryū Yamada is known as a delinquent in his high school; he has been bored of classes after one year of attending school. One day, he accidentally falls from a flight of stairs onto Urara Shiraishi, the ace student of the school. Yamada wakes up to find that he has swapped bodies with her. The two try to reverse the change and discover that kissing triggers the body swap. On the suggestion of student council vice-president Toranosuke Miyamura, they revive the Supernatural Studies club. The supernatural-phenomenon-obsessed Miyabi Itō soon joins the club. The club encounters other "witches" with different powers that are activated with a kiss. A transfer student, Kentarō Tsubaki, becomes a part of the club after nearly causing a fire to the old schoolhouse. Upon discovering the identity of the seventh witch, Yamada supposedly has his memories of the witches erased, but it instead affects the witches and the students involved. While the student council tries to impede his progress, Yamada restores the memories of the witches with a kiss, and gathers the seven witches for a ceremony where he wishes for the powers to go away. He confesses his love to Urara and they become a couple.
He is recruited to the new student council where he learns that he still has his witch copying power, but that there are more witches. Although the student council tries to shield each other from the powers while discovering and allying with the witches, they find themselves facing opposition from students controlled by the Japanese chess club, which has male students with new kinds of witch powers. The student council receives a vote of no confidence and must face a recall election. In the process of infiltrating the Japanese chess club, Yamada learns of a witch who was connected to his past. He works a deal with childhood friend-turned-rival Ushio Igarashi where he wishes for his memories to return; in exchange, Ushio would take seventh witch Nancy's ability. When the Japanese chess club continues to manipulate the campaign, Yamada uses his copied seventh witch power to erase the recent events, but Ushio beats him to the punch and they are both forgotten by the students.
Yamada returns to the Supernatural Studies club as the school has to deal with new witches following the new school year. He also learns there are gaps in his and his schoolmates' memories of what happened at the end of his first school year, including those of whom he was dating at the time. Yamada then tries to find out the truth of what happened. He ultimately gathers the male witches to hold a ceremony to restore everyone's memories. As he goes through his senior year of high school, he plans to apply to a prestigious university. However, when Urara suddenly disappears from his life along with the witches powers and everyone else's memories of her, Yamada discovers she was the original witch. Urara had agreed to the witch powers in order to have a relationship with Yamada, but on the condition that her memories of him to be erased again when she leaves school. However, when she returns at graduation, Yamada finds a way to get her to remember again.
Ten years later, Yamada has become a successful businessman who is looked up to by his coworkers, still keeps in touch with his high school friends, yet still has to propose to Urara. The two get married and some years later, share their story with their two children.
Manga
The manga is written and illustrated by Miki Yoshikawa and serialized in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine. The first chapter was published in 2012's 12th issue, released on February 22, 2012. The series is also released in tankōbon volumes, the first of which was published on June 15, 2012, and the latest, volume 26, on December 16, 2016. On October 26, 2013, Crunchyroll announced a partnership with Kodansha where it would distribute chapters digitally to 170 countries using a new service called Crunchyroll Manga. This includes an English translated version. The series is licensed for a North American release by Kodansha Comics USA, who began releasing the series in 2015. In July 2015, Yoshikawa attended Anime Expo as a guest of honor where she promoted her series. In January 2017, Weekly Shonen Magazine announced that the manga would be ending. It concluded on February 22nd, 2017 after running for exactly 5 years.
Television drama
A live-action drama began airing on August 10, 2013 on Saturdays on FujiTV at 11:10pm. It stars Yusuke Yamamoto as the title character Ryū Yamada, and Mariya Nishiuchi as Urara Shiraishi. Its theme song is "Time Machine Nante Iranai" by former AKB48 headliner Atsuko Maeda. She described the song as "cheerful and fun" and hopes it will liven up the show. Sponsors include Samsung, which included the show's characters in their related commercials broadcast at the time.
Drama episode list
The average rating for the series was 6.3%.
Anime
An animated promotional video (PV) was released by Liden Films on August 26, 2013. The video was directed by Seiki Takuno. Ryu Yamada was voiced by Ryōta Ōsaka, and Urara Shiraishi was voiced by Saori Hayami.Ch. 74 interview In June 2014, Liden Films launched a website with news that it would be producing an original anime DVD (OAD). The OAD has two installments: the first was released on December 17, 2014 bundled with the manga volume 15, and the second is bundled with volume 17 for May 15, 2015. They were advertised as featuring all seven witches as well as hot springs scenes.
In November 2014, Liden films announced plans to produce a TV anime series with the voice characters to reprise their roles from the OAD project. The director is Tomoki Takuno, who did IDOLM@STER: XENOGLOSSIA, Love Live! School Idol Project, and the assistant director is Fumiaki Usui. The series writer is Michiko Yokote, and the chief animation director and character designer is Eriko Iida. Sound is being directed by Yota Tsuruoka and music composed by Masaru Yokoyama.
A 12-episode television anime adaptation produced by Liden Films and directed by Tomoki Takuno aired in Japan between April 12 and June 28, 2015. The opening theme song is "Kuchizuke Diamond" (くちづけDiamond) by WEAVER and the ending theme song is "CANDY MAGIC" by Mimi Meme Mimi.
The first DVD and Blu-ray Disc box sets of the anime TV series included a crossover anime short Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo x Yankee-kun to Megane-chan adapted from the manga by the same author.
Crunchyroll will release the series on Blu-ray and DVD with an English dub.